Tulip Fields
by Authorship
Summary: Wherein every chapter is a different story, a possibility, a reality. Kiharu had already been reborn into insanity. Why not take it that one step further? A selection of AUs and drabbles. A birthday gift from me...to me. *shrug*
1. 1) AU Wherein Shisui Doesn't Drown

**DISCLAIMER- I own nothing. Unfortunately.**

A/N- Some insanity and AUs about Kiharu and friends. Like what you read? Feel free to request a sequel! XXX

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

There was something in the water.

It was late, far later than I had originally thought, and I knew my mother would start to worry if I was gone for much longer.

Apparently, even after being reborn (even if said parents didn't realise that) or even just being an extremely 'mature' child didn't spare your parents from fussing.

Not that I was going to complain.

After losing everything once, I'd be a complete asshole to fail to appreciate all I'd been blessed with in this life.

Cool parents? Check.

Freedom to roam and explore without being caged or discriminated against? Check.

Not having to be a killer? Check.

Maybe I should elaborate on that last one. Ahem. _My parents were farmers and we lived_ outside _of Konoha._

See? You get my drift?

 _Bullet. Dodged._

I was an only child, which was kinda new, so there wasn't any kerfuffle over son/daughter inheritance. One day the farm would be mine. End of. And, thankfully, manual labour wasn't a big deal. It didn't matter that I sucked balls at Japanese or didn't know how to gut fish or hunt. Digging a field was digging a field. Didn't matter what world I was living in.

So, in the daytime, our little family of three would slave over the farmland we owned (an impressive amount, in all honesty. A good few acres - I wasn't sure exactly - of fields filled with rippling slopes of golden wheat, just a few miles from Fire's hidden village) but, in the evening, I was left to my own devices. There were few families in the area, even fewer travellers and so, so long as I was home before it got too dark, I was allowed to do my own thing.

The Naka river, which cut through the mountains of the north, winding around Konohagakure, and flowing past our home, was as beautiful as it was vast. Whilst the majority of the water was fast-moving, a torrent of deep sapphire, there were shallows and small pools beneath waterfalls, where the waters calmed for a while.

It was there that I loved to venture.

A half an hour trek from our land, the small series of waterfalls were my own secret place. They were slow-flowing, small bumps and burbles in the river, and safe to venture across or linger in. On the summer evenings, nights like this one, the clear depths were mystical, droplets falling like crystals from roughly hewn rocks that had long since worn smooth.

The forest was silent as I dabbled my feet in the water and wrung out my sopping wet hair.

My sigh broke the stillness of the clearing, the sky flushing purple as the last rays of sunlight disappeared behind the horizon.

Glancing upstream, I blinked twice.

Was that...something _bobbing in the water?_

This was a river, things were washed down it all the time, from animals to sticks to supplies, but this looked different.

Like, was that- was that clothing?!

Lurching to my feet, I sloshed through the water, a futile struggle against a far superior current. I may have been a better swimmer in this life than my last, but I was only a 17 year-old girl.

Girl: 0. River: 1.

"Hey!" I gasped, chin tilted up as the water splashed against my chest and up my neck, squinted eyes firmly fixed on the dark shape moving steadily closer. "Hey!"

God, I hoped it wasn't a bandit or something.

The-the _thing_ was carried past me and I threw myself across, wrapping my arms around the larger object and using my momentum to shove us over to the nearest rock.

 _Oh God, oh God,_ I desperately gulped and refused the urge to look down. _It's a guy, there is a guy in the fucking Naka._ If this was a-a body, I needed to get us to shore before freaking out.

Getting back on solid ground wasn't particularly hard, the water so much calmer when broken up by the little dips and waterfalls that made this place so special. Lugging a body a foot taller and 60 pounds heavier than me? I was lucky I did hard labour day in and day out. I was wheezing by the time we flopped onto the pebbled bank, the man boneless and freezing cold. Slumping down next to him, I propped myself up on one elbow.

The man-no, _boy,_ maybe a year or so older than myself, oh _God_ \- was porcelain pale, tinged blue from the water. He was completely waterlogged, clothing black and heavy as it clung to his trim frame. Dark hair, curling slightly even when plastered to his head, was matted and pitch black.

His face was strangely familiar, even though I knew I'd never met a single shinobi in this life- and didn't that take the fucking cake?

A shiny yet worn Konoha Hitai-ate was gleaming on his forehead, damp curls half-concealing the engraved leaf.

And then, even as I watched, a slow trickle of scarlet blood traced beneath one closed eyelid, trailing over alabaster skin and into onyx hair.

 _Aw, fuck._

~o000o~

The first thing Shisui was aware of was how _cold_ the world was.

It was like winter had come, regardless of the fact it was mid-August, encrusting his fingers and toes in frost, like his skin was ice itself.

In all honesty, Shisui wasn't even sure how he was feeling _anything_ , considering he thought he'd di-

 _The Naka. Itachi. Danzo, the coup, Konoha-_

His body gave no physical sign he'd woken up - what else could he have done, surely this wasn't heaven - but Shisui's mind had jerked into hyperdrive.

The ground was damp beneath him, shifting and sharp, so he must have washed up on the banks of the river, somehow surviving the fall. Well, all he remembered was the whistled of air in his ears, blood streaming from his eyes - even now, they throbbed in agony, like kunai driving deep into his skull - and then the booming force of the water. The pain had been unreal, making his already aching body pulse with agony until the darkness had swallowed him.

Shuffling nearby had the Jonin tensing minutely, forcibly keeping his breaths shallow and slow. At least the noise meant it was unlikely to be another shinobi, too light to be a bandit-

The slight sound off pebbles sticking - barefoot, probably female, judging by stride and rhythm - announced the return or his assumed saviour, before the rocks shifted, a few hitting and bunching around his shoulder as the figure kneeled beside him.

A warm hand, which felt like a firebrand against his icey skin, rested against his forehead and Shisui finally noticed his lack of shoes and Hitai-ate, flak jacket gone as well, most likely.

Short nails lightly scraped his skin as the woman (?) smoothed his wet hair back, another roasting-hot palm pressing against his cheek and tilting back his face.

Something warm and dry was threaded around his neck before being slowly slid behind his head. Like a sling, his skull was gently lifted, only a few inches from the ground, before lowered onto a makeshift pillow (probably a bundled coat or something similar). _Hmm, so they were conscious of aggravating any head or neck wounds..._

When his feet, almost numb from the cold, were wrapped in something silken, just as warm and dry as his pillow, Shisui decided to see where his rescuer was going with this.

Rustling and the snapping of branches were the only noises to pierce the quiet forest - judging by smell and the sounds of the leaves overhead - before a muted clatter of rocks preceded the sharp smell of burning. _And now, a campfire…_

Shisui almost opened his eyes to peek at his saviour before abruptly remembering he would never do that again.

He didn't have eyes anymore.

Shisui, for all the issues he'd had with his Clan in the recent years, was a proud Uchiha. Not only was visibility incredibly important for a shinobi but, for an Uchiha, it was even more so. To go from Mangekyou, even if that damned mutation was as horrible and fucked up has it had been, to total, irreparable blindness... _maybe I should have been better of dead after all…_

A scorching weight settled against his side, burning through his sodden clothes like an open flame, and Shisui reflexively jerked.

"Shhh, shhhh-," an achingly tender voice hushed him, warm breath - wild berries and coffee - caressing his cheek. The woman - that voice could belong to nothing else - slowly leaned her head on his, carefully pressing her cheek to his own and tangling their limbs. "I'm sorry, really sorry, but you could get hypothermia if I don't warm you up, fast. Actually-" she leaned back, small hands worming under his shirt and peeling it upwards. If Shisui was in any other position, at any other time, and not almost delirious from the pain of his eyes, he would've blushed scarlet at the sensation. _First time a girl touches me like this and I'm blind, half dead and half drowned-_

"What happened to you, shinobi-san?" her voice cracked and Shisui could easily hear how she swallowed nervously. With no sight, all his other senses were going haywire trying to compensate.

The question, though, was loaded, a bitter reminder of the shitstorm currently blowing up back home, and Kami, what if the coup had already happened…

The panic and terror curdled in his throat, twisting his lips subconsciously, and his watcher reacted immediately.

"I know you probably can't tell me," she flustered, sounding concerned by his reaction, whether it was brought on by pain or anger. "But you're only a few miles downstream from Konoha and I think I _fucking deserve to know if enemies are going to be fucking hunting us."_ Her tone shifted, growing more and more incensed as she went on, until she was all but ranting by the end.

Shisui was still silent but, inside, he was reeling.

Sharp words they may have been but they managed to do something the fear and pain hadn't.

Shisui's mind cleared, the fog of agony and despair swept aside, for the meantime, in the face of possible danger.

There would be no enemies like his 'nurse' had suggested but...Danzo might come for him, regardless.

They were out in the open, a civilian (?) and a blinded, wounded shinobi. Shisui didn't need his vision back to see how shit those odds were.

"We need to move," he rasped, throat cracked from salt water and _everything_.

Absently, the 18-year-old wondered if he'd had to have been resuscitated.

"Who are you?" the woman whipped back at him, searing hands running over his limbs and head to make sure nothing was obviously wrong. Surprisingly strong arms wrapped around his shoulders, heaving him up with raw strength and using her own body weight as leverage, their chests pressed flush.

Head spinning from the movement, eyelids reflexively twitching to open and pulling at the dried scabs around his lashes, Shisui spoke without filter.

"Uchiha Shisui."

The sharp breath, a touch too loud to escape notice, and the hands fastening his sandals for him shook violently. _Recognised, then._

A hot weight settled against his back, shoving him upright with difficulty, and Shisui immediately leant against the nearest tree once his feet were under him. His knees trembled and his neck felt like straw.

"Dazai Kiharu…"

She was silent for a long moment, fingers (where they rested cautiously on his arm) controlled to a barely-there tremble and Shisui absently wondered if she was afraid of his Flee-On-Sight rep, even when blind and wounded.

Leaves rustled, wood scraping wood, and Shisui assumed, from the damp-smokey smell, the woman had put out her little fire.

Fingers wrapped around his, pulling his hand - left, she was clever to leave his dominant free - to curl around her bicep, arm flung over her shoulder and her own limb supporting the Jonin around his waist.

"My house isn't too far, okay?"


	2. 2) Chouji x Sasuke fluff

**Chouji x Sasuke for Morning-chan! Hope you like it, honey!**

…...

When Sasuke opened his bento box, he couldn't help the slight quirk of his lip at the pastry carefully rested on top of his tomato salad. His mother was thoughtful and the treat, a savoury tomato, basil and cheese swirl, was only further evidence of this.

Kiharu, a family friend, only made them on occasion, preferring to stick to desserts despite also creating an entire plethora of dinner recipes. She couldn't make everything, though, as the civilian was fond of chanting.

Whilst Sasuke was thankful that she designed to make them at all, he supposed the rarity of them only made the pastry all the more satisfying. Well. He _tried_ to be accommodating.

A quiet gasp on the row behind him, coinciding with when the Uchiha lifted the swirl for a bite, had Sasuke discretely rolling his eyes. Fangirls were a torment.

A quiet thud, as if someone had been elbowed or something, sounded and the dark haired boy closed his eyes, tempted to pray for patience. Muffled hissing had his teeth of edge.

They were _ruining his lunch._

"- _say something-,"_ a low voice hissed and Sasuke's eyes flickered with confusion. Was that Nara Shikamaru?

"-she wouldn't, would she?" the worried voice of the Nara's best friend, Chouji, wondered. Sasuke himself wondered why on earth he cared.

A soft snort and the dull ' _thunk_ ' of the ponytailed boy's head dropping onto the desk reverberated through Sasuke's seat. "It's _nee_ - _chan_ , of _course_ she would. Don't you remember she's been messing with Genma and Raidou since before we were _born_?"

It took a moment for Sasuke's brain to connect the dots before he quickly dropped the pastry back into the container. _What_ had Kiharu _done_?

Twisting in his chair, Sasuke tilted his jaw up to meet the startled gaze of one Akimichi Chouji. Who promptly turned as red as his hair.

Not that Sasuke was paying attention, of course.

"Were you _eavesdropping,_ Uchiha?" the Nara Heir drawled, chin rested on crossed arms and eyes half lidded. His lazy expression belied the sharpness of his gaze.

Sasuke may have been head and shoulders above the rest of his class but he'd be an idiot to underestimate either of these boys. Ensui-san was a like a sleeping dragon and the Lady Akimichi intimidated even his _father_.

Chouji may have been his father's son but the Uchiha wasn't going to take any chances.

"The pastry," the raven-haired boy started brusquely, "What's wrong with it?"

Hn. He hadn't thought the ginger boy could blush any more.

"Nothing!" The Akimichi Heir reassured him, cheeks flushed and expression painfully self-conscious. "It's just…"

Sasuke's brow twitched.

"It's just that was one that I made!"

Blinking slowly, Sasuke glanced down at the pastry sat innocently in front of him. Well, it _did_ look delicious, the cheese melted perfectly and the dough beautifully browned. And, he had seen the other boy helping out behind the bakery counter more times than he could count. Not that he'd paid attention, or anything.

Humming in acknowledgement, the Uchiha Heir slowly tore off the first ring of the swirl, taking a slow bite and chewing.

It was...

"Good…" Sasuke mumbled, taking another bite and ignoring how the other boy slumped slightly in his seat, expression relieved. The dark-haired student cleared his throat, casting his eyes to the side. "It's good."

Something about Chouji's pleased smile, that dimpled round cheeks and made the shy boy almost glow with triumph, had something pleasant wiggling in the Uchiha's stomach.

Abruptly swinging around in his seat to face the front, he took another bite, tomato and basil exploding with flavour on his tongue.

Maybe...maybe Chouji could make them more often…( _just for the two of them_ )


	3. 3) Ninja Kiharu

**Ninja!Kiharu**

 _Crack! (with feels?!)_

When I was 7, Neko-tou was demoted to Genin.

Insubordination, some said. Disrespect and an immature mindset, said others.

It _just so_ happened to be the week before Yuri-oba-san made her 'granddaughter' a new wardrobe of double-sewn, leather padded and mesh-reinforced tunics, a week before Noko and her parents gifted me a case of kunai.

The week before I found myself standing in front of the academy.

My bag was packed, bento lovingly prepared by my flinty-eyed mother that morning, and bandages wrapped around my arms from knuckles to elbow. My hair was loose and my smile was sharp.

I didn't want to be here. My father had been demoted for trying to protect me, my mother had picked fights in the marketplace and my oba-san had taken all the measures she could to protect her granddaughter in the only way she could.

I was going to be an ninja, whether I wanted to or not.

Well… I'd never read a fic where the protagonist _tried_ to be a paper-pusher.

Thankfully, I'd always liked books (who fucking cared if japanese books didn't like me back).

oOOOo

"Kiharu-chan!" The loud smack of a hand on a desk had my head jerking upright, beary eyes peeling open to apathetically meet the enraged gaze of my sensei.

I blinked, long and slow.

"Ah?"

Kotaro-sensei was middle-aged, blonde-haired with amber eyes and deep stress-lines on his forehead. Those lines were currently like deep furrows in his red face, his skin scrunched up in anger.

"What is the 'Will of Fire'?" he gritted out from between clenched teeth.

Clumsily smothering a yawn behind one hand, I glanced to the side and _almost_ felt guilty at the pleading look on Noko's face. Then again...nahhhhh.

"It's what happens after Wednesday's curry night and Nee-chan eats too mu-"

"KIHARU-!"

oOOo

Sometimes - _very rarely, of course_ \- I _almost_ felt guilty.

I'd wanted to open a bakery, eat cakes all day and live a life without having to commit a crime. I'd been pretty good in my last one and I'd really have prefered to maintain that streak. Much more satisfying than a _Snapchat™_ one.

And, honestly? It was a fucking miracle I hadn't been court-martialed like Tou-san. Surely this level of disrespect was actually ridiculous?

Noko was horrified, of course. She _hated_ how disrespectful I was. Well, she thought the jokes themselves were funny but...after seeing my dad lose an entire Rank over this, she was nervous that one day it wouldn't be our parents picking us up but some mysterious ANBU to come and grab my little body, never to be seen again…

Those days, when she voiced her concerns, I held her hand all day under the desk, as if I could tether us together as proof that I'd never leave her.

I was marrying this chick, I'll tell ya'.

So, yeah, I was a little shit in class. And, out of it?

"Imouto!" Noko and I called as one, smiling in delight when Sora-oba turned the newborn to face us, pretending the uninterested baby had looked over all by herself. We coo-ed anyway. A fist curled with surprising strength around my offered finger and I smiled in absolute adoration up until Ino stuck said finger in her gummy mouth.

"Imouto~" I wailed, sounding scarily like my father. Jeez.

Things weren't plain sailing then, either.

oOOo

Kaa-san was waiting for me when I came home, a compassionate smile on her face and a kitchen filled with all the recipes I'd created for her.

She was trying but, honestly, it only made it worse. That I couldn't be the one opening a bakery in the spring ( _Nekki's,_ in honour of my recipes), that I couldn't stay at home. I'd never wanted to be a housewife, in either life, but-

If it meant I didn't have to be a shinobi? I'd take it and _deal._

So, I grit my teeth and thanked my mother, feeling guilty at the pleased smirk she tried and failed to hide from me. I hugged her, crushing my little body against her torso, and tried to communicate all my love and appreciation in that moment. Because Aki was an amazing mother and I loved her with all of my heart, just as much as my _first_ parents. I'd been blessed twice in a row.

Three weeks later, when Tou-san was silently showing me how to sharpen my kunai, the world exploded in chakra.

My parents dragged me under the dining room table, alongside a snarling 'Toshi and hunched me into the space between them. Wrapping in their embrace, I cursed myself. This life was a piece of shit, busy and stressful and _wrong_ and I'd fucking forgotten the _date_ -

...Kurama…I was going to beat you with your own arms...You too, Madara.


	4. 4) Pirate AU

**Pirate AU**

 _Chasingangels wanted Pirates...so we have Pirates!_

 _...And fantasy, tbh...¯\\_(_ _ツ_ _)_/¯_

 _Warning: Badassery, Women Being Awesome, Mikoto is Queen, Hana is Done™ and Kiharu is NOT human..._

….

"Captain!" I turned, one hand holding my admiral's hat in place and the other pointing into the raging waves below my 'nest'. "Man in the water!"

My superior nodded in understanding, dark eyes flashing and silken hair flying as she turned and strode to Star-Board. Long legs, sheathed in thigh-high leather boots over black breeches, ate up the distance and the older woman was soon leaning over the railing.

"First Mate," She hollered back, "any sign of life? A ship?"

"None, ma'am!"

Mikoto the Dragon opened her spyglass with a sharp ' _snap'_ and levelled it at the barrell a fair distance out. It was, as far as I could see, a single person, dressed in black and draped over a broken barrell. Strangely, there was no shipwreck or vessel on the horizon from where he could have originated.

"Hana!" the onyx-haired woman called, a smirk curling her lips when the tattooed Quartermaster barked out an affirmation, already readying her signal.

A splatter of blood rained down on the ocean, clearly heard by my keen ears, and an instant later the water exploded upwards.

"Hey, boys!" Hana beamed, always overjoyed to see The Triplets and the three, massive King Otters (sea creatures formed of an amalgamation of canine features and kraken bodies) howled in jubilation. I couldn't blame them. Those three hadn't seen their favourite human since she tracked Jiraiya, that old pervert, across two oceans. Ahh, the things Tsunade (the Legendary Sucker, who owe-d half the ocean money and had saved the other from death) had us do for the sake of her temper.

Then again, if any guy thought he could write shit porn based on his fantasies about me, I'd punch him so hard his ancestors would rattle. Like, at least make it _good_ porn - But anyway!

My derailed thoughts had cost me and, by the time I'd tuned back into real life, Hana was guiding the Triplets as they lowered their prize onto the deck.

My 'little sister' and the other cabin girl, Pink-haired Sakura, ran over behind Akane-sama, a stretcher held between them. The Elder, the healer aboard, immediately began checking for signs of life, turning the man on his side and forcing huge lungfuls of salt water from between his blue lips. A shudder wracked the soaked frame and, abruptly, the young man was floundering and writhing on the worn planks.

Akane quickly soothed him, tracing seals with her bleeding fingers over his eyes and chest. They healed and that's all I knew. Elders were fickle beings and, as much as Akane loved her wife's granddaughter, I would never be privy to those secrets. Ino and Sakura, her aides, barely were.

"Kiharu," Mikoto called knowingly, crooking a finger to beckon me from the eagle's nest. I snapped back at the call, scaling down the mast and dropping beside the captain in a crouch.

I glanced back to the not-driftwood-man, noticing how he writhed when Akane cupped her palm over his empty eye sockets.

 _Oh, yeah_. I scratched a long nail down my cheek. He was blind. And, judging from the blood that flowed from beneath his lashes and dripped from his jaw, it was a fairly recent occupation. _N'ya_.

"My lady," Akane glanced up, red eyes as crimson as the blood smeared on her remaining hand. "He is an Uchiha."

A blind Uchiha. Well, I never.

The captain froze for an instant, face pale as snow, before she dropped to her knees. The young man was scooped up and, uncaring of the blood smearing over Mikoto's loose white shirt, and cradled to her chest. Long fingers, one hand gloved in black leather and the other bare, trailed over his slack features.

"Akane...is this...Shisui?"

Oh. _Shit._

oOOo

 _The Matriarch_ was an old vessel, once the ship of Mito the Great, who had taken a dryad as a husband and been gifted the ship as a wedding present. When she'd died, her niece Kushina had inherited the huge creation. However, Kushina was then chosen to host the Fire Demon Kurama, and like her Aunt before her, was landlocked for the rest of her days.

To a pirate, such a thing was unthinkable. But, from what I'd heard over the years, the redhead was happily absconded with a husband and bouncing baby brat.

Her best friend, one Uchiha Mikoto, was not so confined. And, so _The Matriarch_ sailed again.

That had been years ago, a decade since I'd joined the crew, and I'd never once looking back. The Sun, the Sea - ' _and A &E' _my mind automatically finished.

Ahhhrgh. Reincarnation was a Bitch for those catchy phrases. And TV ads.

The dissociation was shit, too.

Speaking of…

"Kiharu," Hana smiled up at my reclined figure, limbs hanging lazily from the thick rope wrung I'd balanced myself on. "As First Mate, you should at least _try_ and pay attention to what's going on."

"Hmm? And why is that?" I arched a brow, trailing a claw over the swirling black lines on my legs. "My duties are complete, shockingly enough."

"Well," the younger girl started, scaling the mast and leaning over me. Her satisfied smirk, that stretched the Summoning Marks on her tanned cheeks, had my eyes narrowing in suspicion. She was up to something. "If you _were_ more aware, maybe you'd realise that Driftwood fancies the pants off of you."

"I am missing none of my lingerie," I pointed out reasonably.

Hana threw her hands up in the air as Ino and Sakura, eavesdroppers scrubbing the deck below, burst into a fit of giggles. I was absently amazed that they weren't bickering. Which they did all the time. _For fun._ "You're missing the point, Ki!"

Stretching my hands above my head, I decided the weather was too good _not_ to sunbathe. "Which is?"

Rough fingers grabbed my chin and twisted my head to the side. Tolerantly, I slid my eyes open. "That the guy you _saved_ keeps making a fool out of himself trying to impress you."

As if to accentuate her point, Shisui chose that moment to fall down the stairs, face turn towards us as he no doubt heard my voice.

Oh, for goodness sake, there was a _reason_ the Uchiha were known for their eyes. They were fucking shit without them, for one.

"Huh," I chortled, twisting my jaw free and returning to my original position. "You don't have to tell me that. Just look at the dork!"

"It was funny at first but now it's _annoying_ , Ki! I can't get any work done!" Hana whined, voice moving as she returned to the deck and stood below my reclined figure. For an eighteen year old, she sure was strict. Pah!

"That's hardly _my_ fault-" I complained.

"Yes, it is," Hana interrupted impatiently. " _Fix. It."_ the brunette emphasised, each word accompanied with a sharp jab to my spine. I was impressed she could reach.

Waving my hand, I dismissed her pleas. "Nah, no point...won't change a damn thing. Shi's _always_ been like that, even when he did have eyes."

The deck was silent for approximately 0.8 seconds before three voices exploded.

" _What?!"_

oOOo

The port of Uzu (known as Uzushio or Uzushiogakure to the locals and regulars) blazed like a bonfire on the horizon.

The water was pitch black, so still it seemed like a shallow spill of ink as far as the eye could see. The sky was purpled and dark with huge constellations running like seams of diamond above us.

The rigging creaked and yawed as _The Matriarch_ pitched over crests, the waves that signalled the the port's walls were close at hand. This land was famous, and named, for it's whirlpools but...a small few knew these waters well enough to avoid them entirely.

"Shadow Master, how long until we anchor?"

A dark form, vaguely humanoid, crawled up the nearest beam and leaned out of the woodwork, it's fingers legs and skull still appearing 'rooted' in. From here, it's head looked vaguely pineapple shaped...

"Shishou," a low, smooth voice responded. "I will drop the anchor in approximately half an hour. Will you be at port for long?"

Mikoto, hat missing and gloves off, ran her pale hands through her loose, tumbling hair. "No, Ensui. Just for the night...I have some business, a castaway to send on his way and so that the crew can see their families, have a bit of fun."

The shadow seemed to tilt its head and it's voice had turned inquisitive. "Shi? He's not staying?"

"Ah yes," the captain leaned back in her armchair and closed her eyes with an amused smile. "You and Kiharu were children together with him. And no, my nephew doesn't belong here."

"How can a shadow be a child?" Was that _sarcasm_? Touché. "He was wounded, no? And there was no shipwreck...has he told you?"

"He has spoken to Kiharu."

"That's a 'no', then."

oOOo

Yuri was waiting for us as soon as the plank was dropped, auburn-gold hair shining under the port lanterns. She had wrapped a large, red shawl around her shoulders and I had to smile at the gesture. Akane had woven that completely by hand, including making the yarn from some simple fleece and cotton we'd 'acquired' from a passing trade ship. It had taken her months, the voyage, and she'd only just finished it when we'd returned to Uzu.

But that had been years ago, when I was but a child, and Yuri-oba wore it faithfully.

Their love was a quiet one, filled with silent looks and the briefest touches of hands.

"Yuri," the Elder greeted, curling her arms around her wife's waist and pressing a soft kiss to the crows feet at the corner of her eye.

"Akane," my grandmother smiled back, her voice still as mesmerising as the day she first learnt her Song. And, even well over 60, the soft sound still garnered a few second glances as she hooked her arms through mine and Akane's, leading us into the town. The burdens of Sirens...my mother had had it too.

Without conscious thought, my fingers brushed the lavender gem that hung, encased in gleaming silver, from my left lobe. _Ah, well...she was with me now._

"How about some supper?" the seamstress smiled at me, raising her voice over the din. The streets were roiling with life, bars open and scoundrels running the streets.

The houses were white, red tiled roofs, and set into terraces in the hills and surrounded in greenery. Vineyards striped the mountainsides, hydrangea bushes like leafy clouds billowed in between the houses, the street squares and corners. The petals were gradients of flushed pinks and periwinkle blues, mirroring the sky and sea at sunset and filling the whole town with their sweet scent.

As a Reborn, an Olde Soul, I likened it to Sorrento or the Cote D'Azure. Very seaside, mediterranean even.

But, a Pirate town was, well, filled with the renegades and so, when we heard pistols fired ahead, we just casually altered our route home to accommodate. Regardless, I was always glad for the huge twin axes strapped in an 'X' across my back. Hey, pacifist I may be but the sight alone was a fantastic deterrent.

And axes? I always had liked Gimli in _The Lord of the Rings_. Even five lives in it was _still_ a great series. I mean, Peter Jackson had such attention to detail, the costumes alone-

"Kiharu," Yuri smiled, gesturing for me to enter the house instead of just mong out in the street.

The house was whitewashed with green shutters and terracotta tiled roofs, something of a cottage with a small stone fountain in the front garden and lemon trees in the back. As I stepped through the door, the scent of delicious food and _home_ washed over me, so familiar I had to resist the urge to drop to the carpet and purr like a housecat. Pfft, that was something Papa would've done.

"Are you going out tonight, my darling?" Yuri asked, placing her steaming basket in the centre of the table. I wouldn't be staying long, just grabbing a bite, before I left on my own business and to give the two older women some time to themselves.

The meal was warming, little pork dumplings with miso and coconut buns, bean sprouts and edamame beans. Not only were veggies pretty scarce towards the end of a voyage (cats were carnivores for the most part, but I appreciated the change and freshness), but the food was so quintessentially _home_ that I was scraping my plate clean in moments and licking my maws.

My aunt and the Elder were holding hands on the table as I ducked to press a kiss to Yuri's temple.

"Thanks for the wonderful meal but I best be off, have a lovely evening you two," I called, ducking out the backdoor and strapping my equipment back on.

I had a poker game to crash.


	5. 5) AU Founders Era Time Travel

**AU Founders Era Time Travel**

…..

It started with the crash of thunder.

The horizon darkened ominously, purpled clouds rolling in like great invading banks, intangible waves roaring in the sky. Deafening reverberations shook the world, or so it felt like, as if the clouds themselves made impact as they merged.

As always, where there was thunder, so too was there lightning.

Great spears of light, crackling sabres that stabbed to earth, flashed and dancing across the horizon in blinding instants.

It was an omen if ever there was one.

Farmers hurried to the safety and shelter of home, their cattle and livestock tucked away in barns and under trees. Children were rushed inside, their parents soothing frightened screams and fearful tears, even as they themselves watched the sky with suspicion.

Samurai on guard in the homes of lords or the palaces of Daimyos held their posts. The rain would not shake them.

Shinobi cast careful glances to the heavens, the most suspicious offering up a prayer for fortune, and the most paranoid wondering at the source of the storm.

In the Compounds of two rival clans, brothers plotted, uninterrupted, of peace.

And, on a hill, five miles from where Konohagakure would one day flourish, a man entwined his fingers, stained black from seals, with his wife's.

They climbed from the huge, smoking crater, and surveyed the blackened clearing the lightning strike at formed. A few droplets of water landed on their figures, darkening fabric and hair, running down skin. And slowly, slowly, the heavens opened, a great downpour soaking the land, all across Fire country.

Kiharu, 28 and strong, with a wedding ring on her finger and a summoning seal covering the expanse of her spine, smiled up at her husband.

Shisui, 30 and determined, with a matching ring and more weapons than the rest of Fire country put together, grinned back.

And Ensui, 35 and Shadow Master, wearing a long skirt and an unimpressed expression, propped himself against the nearest tree (smoking and, _yep_ , still on a fire) and wondered why he'd thought third wheeling 80 years in the past was a Good Idea™.


	6. 6) Drowning part2

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooo

AU Shisui saved from the river, p2

~o000o~

The farmhouse rested on top of a hill, the softly glowing lamps and the trendle of smoke rising from the chimney visible from the river. It was a large house, maybe a bit too much for a modest family of three, filled with exposed stonework and wooden beams. So unlike the usual rice paper houses that characterised this world, the farmhouse had been built with my grandfather and father's own hands, and all that love and care seemed to radiate from the very walls.

I loved our home.

My father was a modest man who abhorred violence, the son of a blacksmith, and my mother had inherited our land from her own parents, silk merchants who had always believed in preparing for the future and left their only child a considerable savings fund.

When they married, the Dazai farm was born.

"Come, on," I panted, bare feet stinging from the sharp stones and rough forest floor. Shisui was almost a deadweight, barely conscious and all but bent double over my smaller frame. When a quiet groan was his only reply, I gritted my teeth and forced us to stagger onwards faster.

The hill was a struggle but, seeing the feverish sweat gathering on the older boy's brow, I soldiered on, struck by the terrible fear that I'd found him only to watch him die later.

I'd never interacted with any of the Naruto characters before, only really knowing the timeframe from the wars waged and the Hokages in power, the glow of Kyuubi on the horizon so many years ago.

I'd contented myself with this life, telling myself that the world had sorted itself out and, if there had been a mystical reason for my rebirth, I would've been born elsewhere for it. Not as a farmer.

And then, Shunshin no Shisui washed up, beaten and blinded but _alive_ , and my preconceptions were blown to smithereens.

"Kiharu, is that you?" My mother's voice called from the porch as we crested the hill, eyes squinting into the darkness and hands on hips. "You were gone for too long, you-" A sharp gasp tore from her throat when we came into the light. I had little doubt we were quite the sight.

"Kiharu!" Aki cried, flying down the steps and rushing closer.

I held her off with my free hand, immediately reaching back for Shisui's arm around my shoulders and tilting my head to gesture to said shinobi. "Careful Kaa-san, he's really badly wounded- I-I don't know if he'll be okay, can you get Tou-san?"

Fortunately, our voices and mum's gasp seemed to have drawn his attention and my dad appeared in the open doorway in front of us.

"Wha-Oh." the curious smile dropped from his face, warm chocolate eyes hardening suspiciously. Whilst both of my parents had lived through war, my father had been forced to craft weaponry for a cause he saw no meaning in. And, when the fighter grew worse and worse, he was forced to the front lines, fixing what weapons he could just as fast as they were being ruined or lost.

"Please." I cut in, seeing how his eyes hardened. Shinobi or not, killer or not, Shisui deserved to _live_.

Jaw popping, my Tou-san sighed explosively before stepping closer and taking my place, dragging the now-comatose Jonin into the house. Despite the season, the fire was lit to ward of the late chill as Seiichi slowly lowered the younger man onto the futon beside it. As we followed them into the house, Kaa-san rushed into the kitchen, apron tails flapping and blonde hair swirling in her wake. Flicking on the light, she turned on the sink to fill a mixing bowl with warm water. Reaching past her for the first aid kit (my idea, in all honesty), I flitted back to the men's side, quivering fingers picking out the roll of bandages and bottle of liniment from the mess of plasters etc.

"Here, Tou-san," I pressed the gauze into his outstretched hand, watching nervously as he dipped it in the poultice Kaa-san had brought in, wetting it in the warm water and wrapping it over his eyes, the empty sockets bleeding again. "Will he be okay?" I wondered aloud, my voice the only noise except the crackle and pop of the fire and the whisper of cotton on skin.

My father leaned back from where he was positioning Shisui's neck incase it had been strained by the fall. In all honesty, I figured his entire body was strained, that it would be a massive purple bruise come morning, and I felt completely helpless.

"I'm no healer, Ki-chan, you know this. This stuff," he leaned back on his heels, waving an expansive hand over his patch job on the Jonin, "is just bits and bobs picked up from the Forge and the war. I don't know how he'll cope, if the meds will take, what will happen come morning."

A tanned finger, corse and scarred from his blacksmithing days, tucked me under the chin, lifting my face from where my gaze had wandered to my fiddling fingers. A comforting smile, filled with understanding that warmed cocoa eyes and dimpled stubbled cheeks, had my tense shoulders relaxing. Just...just a bit.

"You did good, Hime. It's gonna be okay."

~o000o~

It was a dream, filed with feverish heat that itched across his skin like centipedes crawling and cloudy faces swimming in his head.

Shisui was self aware to remember that they couldn't be real. You needed eyes to see, after all.

His neck ached, even as his head tossed in an attempt to dispell the dillusions, mouth open to pant aginst the encompasing heat and limbs weakly struggled agrainst his restaints.

"-Sto-isui-" voices filtered through the haze, disjointed and only heightening his confusion.

He..he needed to leave - Konoha, Itachi-

"Shisui!" two hands, shockingly cold against his sweating skin, clamped his face between their palms. The girl sounded strangely familiar, her voice authoritarian, piercing through the fog like a flare of light.

Not that he had eyes to see that, of course.

"You need to breathe, honey, okay?" she continued, hands still clamping his head. "Breathe, you're safe, you're okay," one hand shifted, grabbing his hand from where he was fisting the blankets and lifting it in one of hers. His palm was pressed onto skin and cotton, fingers brushing collarbone, and a heart thumping steadily beneath him. The chest - _Kami, he was touching a girl's_ chest - expanded in slow, deliberate breathes and Shisui tried his best to imitate.

His racing heart gradually slowed, breaths coming deeper and more regular. The panic receded, after what felt like an age, and his head slowly cleared.

"Wh-" he croaked, throat dry as a Suna and mouth feeling like something had died on his tongue. In response, the girl leaned back and, a moment later, a straw slipped into his mouth. The first drop of water on his tongue was like heaven, rain after a long drought, and Shisui threw all his Shinobi caution to the wind. Taking deep drags, he made a wordless sound of protest in the back of this throat when the drink was taken away.

"Careful, careful," His nurse rebuked him softly, the hand still on his face moving to brush back his sweaty curls. "You'll make yourself sick like that. Slow down, okay?"

Obediently nodding, the Uchiha sighed in relief when the straw returned.

When he'd finished the glass, Shisui settled back on his pillows, pushing back the desire to open his eyes (firmly wrapped in herbal-scented gauze), even if it meant opening empty sockets. His lids itched but he ignored it. "Where am I?"

"Five miles from Konoha, Uchiha-san." A man's voice sounded from the doorway, a presence that Shisui had noticed but ignored for the moment. He'd wanted the water more, thanks.

An influx of air - Shisui guessed the nurse at his side had inhaled to interrupt - but the man continued on. "You were found in the Naka and brought to us. You've been unconscious with a fever and infection for six days."

 _Si-six days?_

"I-I need to leave immediately," Shisui rasped, forcing his elbows under him when his core lacked the strength to sit up.

"That's not possible," The girl beside him said, a hand pressing his shoulder back into the cushions. "You're too weak to stand, this is the first time you've been coherent in days! There's no fuckin-"

"Kiharu!" Her father, presumably, reprimanded her strong language but 'Kiharu' wasn't even phased.

"-ing way you'll make it in your condition. Don't be an asshole and at least wait until you're stronger-"

Temper flaring at the insult, Shisui tried to sit up again, ignoring the fluttering hands that supported him even as the girl they belonged to continued to berate him.

"Hey! You don't know what you're talking about, little gir-"

"Call me 'little girl' and I'll rip your balls off."

Wisely, Shisui snapped his mouth shut. Not only was he rather helpless right now but the girl sounded serious. _Memo to self, don't call her 'little'._

The Uchiha prodigy could almost feel her mood lighten, the dark atmosphere vanishing in an instant.

"Good boy!" she approved and Shisui swallowed his protest at the demeaning praise. Civilian or not, this girl was scary.

Soft padding on the wooden floors and something heavy landed on his chest. "Oof!" Shisui wheezed, abdomen flaring in pain and Kiharu groaned in aggravation, reaching and lifting the weight from his poor body. Sharp pin-pricks nicked his flesh, even through the cotton of his shirt, and a cat yowled in protest, the sound moving from his torso and over to the girl's lap.

"'Toshi!" Kiharu scolded the demon cradled to her chest, the 'cat' (and Shisui used the term very loosely) continuing to yowl unhappily. "Bad kitty! Sorry Shisui," she turned back to her patient, who was still clutching at his painful stomach, "My cat is a bit territorial. He didn't mean it~" she cooed, voice muffled as she presumably snugged the hellion in her arms.

Judging by the burning feeling in the side of his head, from the 'cat's evil glare no doubt, Shisui sincerely doubted that.

"Well, say I was to stay; then what? I _need_ to return to the village. It's urgent shinobi business. You wouldn't-"

This time, it was the man who interrupted. "I wouldn't continue, Uchiha-san. We have all seen war, seen duty here. Do not underestimate the suffering or knowledge of others, simply because it is different from your own."

The house was silent as Shisui ducked his head, feeling his cheeks warm. Seemed like today was full of reprimands, not that anything spoken had been wrong or unjust.

"Sorry…"

"As for your worries, I have sent one of our hawks to Hokage-sama. Forgive our presumption, but you were wounded so close to the village, coming from the direction of Konoha, that I marked the missive for Sandaime-sama's eyes only."

Tension drained from Shisui's body, a weight slipping from his shoulders and leaving him slightly breathless. _Blessed the paranoia of the civilian countryside…I can only hope the warnings are respected._

But still, the fact that word of his presence hadn't been spread around carelessly was more than he could have hoped for.

"Yes...yes, thank you." Gratitude and relief loosened his tongue. "My work is secret, for Hokage-sama only...thank you…"

"Oh!" Kiharu's exclamation fractured the brief peace. "We never introduced ourselves-!" a slight breeze caressed Shisui's cheeks as he sat back with a small amused smile, like she was flapping her hands. "This is my Tou-san, Dazai Seiichi, and my Kaa-san's outside with the chickens - her name is Dazai Aki - and you've already met Hitoshi-" _Yeah,_ Shisui internally grouched, _unfortunately._ "-And my name's Kiharu. And you're Shisui-kun, so there."

' _-Kun'?!_ No, he was _not_ blushing, it was from the blanket-

A hissing from the next room cut the younger girl (Shisui guessed she was a teenager as well, probably around 15 or 16) off and she laughed loudly, the genuinely happy sound echoing without restraint. "T-tou-san! Did you forget the soup again?"

Uttered curses and frantic scrambling were the only reply.

"Sorry Shisui-kun," she turned back to the Jonin, still laughing a bit. "Kaa-san insists that Papa does his fair share of the cooking, so that's your lunch he's over-boiling."

"Still sounds like a better cook than me," the older boy reflexively quipped back, jerking a moment later when his words registered.

Kiharu was already chuckling though, one hand batting his shoulder playfully in a overly familiar way, but Shisui didn't mind. When was the last time someone had been so at ease with him, a non-Uchiha no less? He couldn't remember. And that wasn't even mentioning how relaxed he felt, all things considered. _What was with this place?_

"Ta-dah!" the older man re-entered, his bravo making Shisui's lips twitch in a grin after his comical panic a few minutes earlier.

A tray was rested on his knees once the Jonin had managed to pull himself upright, bolstered by the pillows Kiharu reshuffled behind him as support.

Searching fingers grasped the cool metal of his spoon before Shisui froze.

However, before he'd had a chance than do more than stiffen that the reminder that he was _blind_ , smaller fingers nicked the cutlery, dipping into the broth and holding it in front of him.

The soup smelled of vegetables, hearty and thick, with the slight undertone of chicken. No untoward herbs but Shisui was on guard regardless.

"What kind of nurse would I be if I let my patient feed himself, hm?" Kiharu playfully bantered. She wasn't phased and the knot in Shisui's chest loosed minutely at the gesture. "You'll get used to it in no time Shisui-kun but, for now, allow me."

He couldn't find it in himself to deny her.

Fingers brushed his chin and Shisui obediently opened his mouth, welcoming the warm spoon and hot soup eagerly. The soup itself wasn't anything particularly special, a slight metallic taste from where Seiichi-san had boiled it in the pot, but it was the first food Shisui had had (so far as he remembered) in days and, for that alone, it was glorious.

Steadily working together, Kiharu and Shisui cleaned his bowl. It had been a relatively small portion but Shisui's stomach had shrunk over the past few days, so he felt pleasantly full. The food and warmth made his body relax completely for the first time, slumped down in the cocoon of blankets and with the haze of exhaustion descending on his mind.

The tray was lifted from his lap, blankets pulled up the his chin, and an arm (now familiar as Kiharu's) around his shoulders helped him lie down again.

A half-garbled protest rumbled in the Jonin's chest but a soft hand on his cheek shushed him.

"Don't worry Shisui, sleep. You need the rest to heal...we'll talk some more when you wake up~"


	7. 7) Wake Up AU

Wake Up AU

...

Wherein our girl wakes up...to find it was all a dream?!

….

I woke up slowly.

My foggy mind had the vaguest understanding of reality as I yawned and stretched in my bed, duvet twisted between my legs and sunlight peeking from around my closed curtains.

It was lazy and warm and I never, ever, _ever_ wanted to get up. Ever.

It was then, of course, that my phone alarm went off.

It only took my brain a few seconds to realise why that was _wrong_.

Phone? In konoha?! And my alarm was the Lion King so-

 _Was...was it a_ dream?

Dread, cold and heavy, stank in my stomach, as if my insides had turned to lead.

D-dad and Hitoshi and Shisui and….please...please-

In a flurry of motion, I kicked back the covers and staggered upright, barely even taking in my over-sized U2 shirt and panties pajama combo. Fumbling fingers ripped open the curtains.

I was back at Uni.

A car, a student's battered Ford, chugged past and a litter-man was sweeping up the broken bottles from last night's partying.

Wandering hands found a long, smooth ponytail and my sore eyes confirmed the need for glasses.

Shit, this was real. Shit, I _was_ back. Or, had I never really left. Was this like A Christmas Carol, except instead of a renewal, the only souvenir I kept was a broken heart?

I'd _loved_ people there, built a life for myself and...it had never even existed?

My eyes were dry but I felt pale, shaky, and I knew it hadn't sunken in yet. I'd always been a bit _too_ good with grief, compartmentalising the shit out of my emotions.

Snatching up my phone, it was scarily easy to remember my lock screen password. As if I hadn't spent over a decade in another life. But my contacts were all still there, a new message from my flatmate asking if I wanted anything from the shops, a few emails.

It was all here.

Like...I'd never left.

It was then, in my crappy student flat, that I sank to my knees and sobbed out a broken heart.

Two hours later, my room trashed from a brief tantrum, I Google-d _Naruto_.

And promptly discovered that the series didn't exist.

 _What the fuck._

I had _memories_ , not just from Kiharu, but from _before_ of watching the show as a kid and then writing fanfiction! Tumblr and fanart and communities and my _Discord_ \- they. Didn't. Exist.

The next breakdown lasted half an hour.

Suddenly, I...I needed to get out, to breathe, to see the sky and tell myself that it was fine, I'd lost it all before (or..at least, I'd _thought_ I had..) and I could deal with it again.

I pulled on some yoga pants, clipped my bra and slipped a hoodie over my Tee. I looked like shit but, then again, I felt that way too.

I yanked on my old Converse, ignoring the ripped up laces, and shoved my phone, keys and wallet (all snatched from my bedside table) into the front pouch.

I tried not to look too much at the flat. It...didn't feel like home anymore.

My phone buzzed in my hand and I almost dropped it in shock, squashing the reflex to leap to the side like-like Tou-san had taught me. My _mum's_ face smiled up at me from the screen, her old wedding photo as an icon under _incoming call_.

My fingers moved on their own.

"Hello? Darlin'? Uch, you wouldn't believe what your father's just done!" an achingly familiar voice, like a half-forgotten memory, sounded in my ear.

"Mum?"

"Yes? Well, aren't _you_ half paying attention, hmm!"

I was frozen on the sidewalk, torn between begging for her to come and get me and throwing the phone away from my ear.

It had been a long time since I'd heard a mother's voice.

So, mum prattled on, gossiping about her colleagues and the canoe my dad had spontaneously come home with, despite the fact the man hated water.

Like a robot, and half hypnotised by her voice, I found myself slowly walking again, my feet guiding me off campus and to my favourite coffee shop.

And mum kept on talking. The more she spoke, the more Kiharu felt like a dream, as if nothing was wrong and I'd had the most insane imagination ever.

I almost believed I could trick myself into coping that way too.

"Oi!" A voice called behind me and my mum, obviously overhearing, immediately rushed to hang up so that I could "chat with my friends". When the call ended, I almost burst into tears. Shit, that had made it worse.

"Hey!" someone called again and I closed my eyes in resignation. Dammit, I didn't want human interaction. Not _now._

A hand fell on my shoulder and I twisted around, jerking myself free - I hated when randomers just _touched_ you, you know? - only to freeze at the boy stood behind me.

Tall and muscular with dark skin and a closely shaved head, the boy towered over my not-inconsiderable height. _Felix_ , my mind supplied, _Olympic level Judo_. Since when did we know each other?

"I called out for you, idiot, why didn't you stop?"

Gritting my jaw, I turned to leave. I was not in the mood for any of this bullshit.

"Oi, is that the thanks I get for pulling that asshole away from you last night? Tch."

Two meters away, I froze.

"Last night?"

Coming round my shoulder, the older boy smirked down at me with a vastly superior expression in his yellow-green eyes.

… _.like a Lord over his servants…._

"Pretty smashed, weren't you? Don't remember a damned thing." If anything, my apparent amnesia only seemed to make him even more smug. "Well, you're welcome, I suppose, but Silas would kill me if anything happened to you, so don't go thinking it was out of the goodness of my heart."

Silas?

A large hand came up to run over his shaved scalp and I froze, only just noticing the black tattoos wrapping around both of his arms, parallel to each other.

 _...panthers?_

"Of course, those idiot boys would be a pain in the neck too. Ethan was the one to get you home. For an engineering kid, guy sure is annoying. Your stupid _best friend_ was too drunk, _idiot,_ to take you home. The two of you are as bad as each other, no-one should let you even _near_ alcohol-"

I stopped dead in my tracks.

"'Toshi?"

Head twisting round to sneer at me, Hito- _Felix_ rolled his eyes in aggravation. "Dammit, I _told_ you to stop calling me that-"

This time, as I threw myself forwards and gripped my friend in a rib-cracking hug, I was crying from relief.


	8. 8) Seiichi x Aki p1

**Part 1/7-**

 **Aki punches two idiots in one night**

It was the dawn shift, the busiest time at _The Moon and Bell_ bar, and Aki wanted to go home.

The place was heaving, filled with fumbling drunks who roared around the sticky round tables and pushed and shoved at the bar. The light was low, walls painted plum and oak everywhere. Lines of sake and home-brewed ale and beer stood to attention behind the harried bartenders.

Aki was only one of the two women working tonight, or hired actually. A waitress in a deep red dress, a tiny white bib around her waist and her blonde hair pulled into a low ponytail, Saeki Aki meant business.

Her parents were away, working as always, and Aki hated when they came home to find her unoccupied. So, even though she didn't need it, she'd found herself a job.

But...Aki wasn't very good at _consistency_. She'd been a shop assistant more times than she could count, her mother's favourite customer (a seamstress, Yuri, a few streets over who always bought plenty of silk) had hired her whenever she wanted work, and a librarian for a brief stint. But...none of it ever _captured_ her.

So, here she was, her first night on the job and already five men had gotten more handsie than anyone had dared in her life. Aki knew she was both spoiled and difficult and fully accepted these character flaws. As she put it, she had _standards._ If _one more_ man thought he could touch her inappropriately, she'd _kill him_ , new job or not!

It was, of course, at that moment when a brawl broke out.

The pub was short staffed tonight, only one security bouncer, and the other waitress - Kiki - was a tiny waif of a thing at 4'8".

The two big lugs started throwing punches as Aki abandoned her tray and started pushing through the ring of people poised to watch the 'fun'. When a sake bottle was smashed, Aki and the bouncer - Shouta - threw themselves at the two drunks.

Aiming for the shorter one, Aki tried to get his arms behind him, glad he was so drunk the very ground seemed to pitch beneath him. The fight seemed to quickly leave him (the same could not be said to the other, who was giving her colleague _quite_ the hassle) and Aki pressed her advantage, pushing him towards the exit.

She didn't even get that far.

Her 'captive's opponent, face smashed against the bar, yelled something incomprehensible. Unfortunately, the man in her grip seemed to understand just fine and, suddenly, the fight was renewed as he yanked himself free.

Aki knew this was the moment she was supposed to back off, let someone else handle it. After all, she'd been the only one able to help Shouta-san and she'd only been supposed to escort the two men off premises.

But she was feeling particularly bitter at the moment. The blonde had been felt up like a piece of meat all night, open season simply because she was on shift and at hand.

The man twisted round to rekindle the brawl.

Only to walk straight into Aki's fist.

The roaring bar quietened in disbelief, the inherbreted customers unable to believe that the delicate blonde stunner who'd served drinks so politely could down a man in one blow. Granted, he _was_ off his face. But...her wrists were so dainty…

"There were reports of a disturbance?" A deep baritone drawled from the doorway and a young Chuunin - all tanned skin, glossy waves and puppy-brown eyes - ducked inside the establishment.

His eyes widened in disbelief when they landed on a blonde waitress, who was currently dragging a comatose drunk towards the exit. "No need, Shinobi-san. I was going to call an Officer so this man can spend a night at the Station. See how he likes drinking when he wakes up there in the morning!"

The Chuunin took a step closer, eyeing how the bouncer was hauling another man after the blonde. "Er, civilian-san perhaps I-"

Propping the man against the wall outside, Aki brushed off her hands in an extremely satisfied manner. "No need, shinobi-san. Unless you'd be so kind to call the Police?"

The second drunk then seemed to catch sight of his unconscious opponent, letting out a roar of laughter and thrashing in the bouncer's grip. Aki stepped forward to help as Shouta was elbowed in the gut and bent double, wheezing.

The Chuunin grabbed her arm. "Miss, I'm going to have to ask you to step aside. It's not your place to-"

He didn't see the fist coming.

"'My place'?! I'll show you my place!" Aki shoved the drunken man with all of her weight, completely ignoring the fact she just assaulted a shinobi (who was currently holding his jaw and staring like she had eight heads), pressing him into the pubs wall and allowing Shouta-san to get a good grip on him.

When she glanced over her shoulder and met the eyes of the flabbergasted Chuunin, the blonde turned away in disgust. Ripping off her bib and tossing it to the dusty road, Aki turned and strode off down the street.

"Where-!?" the stupid shinobi squawked behind her.

"Out of the way, as is _proper_ for a _woman_ -!"

She'd hated that job anyway.


	9. 9) Pirate AU part 2

Pirate AU part 2

oOOOo

The town was smokey, a vague fog from candle wicks and lanterns that also came in with the tide, filling the streets and curling around my bare feet.

A dog barked a few streets away, barely audible over the din of the neighbourhood, but I froze, regardless.

Dogs 'round here could only mean one thing…

"Inu, you _sneak_ ," I drawled to an empty street. "You wouldn't sink so low as to stop a humble citizen from enjoying her evening?"

A white mask peaked over the nearest roof. "Maa, maa..." a lazy hand wafted away my words. "What citizen?"

He leaned back an inch and watched the throwing knife pass by his nose. "So rude, Neko-chan, I'm wounded~"

"What do you _want_ , Inu?" I bit out.

Silver hair, bleached white in the night, swayed slightly as the assassin dropped into the alleyway beside me. Well...funky hair was the _least_ you could expect after playing with lightning as a kid. Okami really _was_ a pushover parent…

" _Ahem,"_ the dog coughed politely at the glazed look in my eyes. "There's someone who wants to see you."

I, however, was two steps ahead and feeling particularly uncharitable. When Inu raised his head from the polite dip (he _was_ a hired 'gun', after all), the street was achingly empty.

A clawed finger longingly stroked the orange binding of his favourite book. _Sigh...now he had to_ track _her…_

oOOOo

The Casino was a massive building, undoubtedly the nicest in town, all white stone and domed ceilings. A smattering of steps led up to the front door, guarded by two attendants in white shirts (and little else). Inside was clean and pretty, paintings covering the archways and expensive trinkets on display everywhere.

All of which and been, cough, _donated_ by generous patrons.

The masterpiece above the main foyer, for example. It was huge, around a meter both ways, and depicted some wood nymphs washing their hair. Honestly, _why_ Suna wanted a portrait of Hashirama, Toka and Itama was a great mystery to me. _That_ had been a bitch to steal. For some reason the museum guards hadn't wanted to let me leave with it slung across my back.

Ahh well. I'd never liked the desert much anyway.

"Evenin', boys," I winked as I passed inside.

The place was heaving already, everyone dressed from cocktail-ready outfits to scruffy shirts and trousers. For my part, my leathers barely warranted a second glance.

Well. The _accessories_ (and my rep) did have more than a few eyes lingering, marking my progress as I weaved through the crowd and started climbing the back staircase up to the balcony rooms. There were far less people up here, the exclusive lounges, and it wasn't long before I saw one of the game members.

"Well, well, well," A rumbling baritone rasped behind me and a huge, hulking figure came 'round the corner. He was well over 6 ft, closer to 7, and dressed in a open fronted black peasant shirt and dark breeches. "Look what the cat dragged in…"

"Surely, I'd be the one doing the dragging, in that case?" I smirked, looping an arm through the offered elbow. "I never knew you were such a gentleman, Kisame!"

His scaled hand, rested politely over my own, squeezed playfully. "Don't spread it around, I'd hate to undo all my hard work." With the slightest tug, the Shapeshifter started guiding us along the corridor. The carpets were a plush red, almost velvetine, and luxurious alongside the white walls and gold fittings. Our bare feet, one pair grey-blue and webbed and the other not unlike a panther's, looked a bit ridiculous pressed against it.

"Because my feline principles are so fond of fish, I'll do you this favour," I drawled, eying my escort out of the corner of my eye. He was leading us to one of the richer lounges...must be a big pot tonight.

Kisame's huge palm was pressed to the open front of his chest and his gills fared in mock-affront. "I'm not for _eating_ , Neko!"

We stopped in front of a discrete doorway and nodded to the security guard to let us through. My parting line before we pulled on our game-faces left the Shark floundering, blushed purple in her wake.

"I promised you'd enjoy the experience."

The card room was low-lit, a single poker table in the centre and a fancy bar running along the back wall. Crystal glasses gleamed in the candlelight alongside jewel-toned bottles of spirits. Amber rum, emerald gin and golden ales swirled in their decanters as the bartender prepared the evening's drinks.

Most of the players had yet to arrive (I was a touch earlier than anticipated, damn that dog for making her rush) but one or two were already starting in on the martinis.

A fiery stream of lava, that burned itself up before it could fall to the floor, poured in an endless river down the back of a curvaceous figure. A figure who was drinking spirits almost as fast as the bartender could pour them.

A quip about the easiness of taking money from a drunkered tickled the tip of my tongue but…. _her loss, my gain_ , and the comment was swallowed in favour of slipping into the stool next to her.

"I've not played a game with you since Rain, my Lady."

The Cheruf turned to glare at me, the movement scraping the rocks of her skin against one another. She was, like most of her kind, gloriously beautiful. Humanoid in shape, her body was hewn from the volcano from which she was birthed, the magma of which would cycle forever in her core. The heart of one of these lava spirits was, therefore, the most precious stone in the world; a burning gem, clear and pure from the hellish heat, that maintained the fires within each Cheruf.

"That's the price you pay for playing in the water, Kiharu." Mei's voice was gravelly, a trickle of smoke drifting up from her open lips, but in a more husky, inviting way. God, Tsunade was a lucky woman.

"Considering the fact you're from Kiri, I find your hypocrisy amusing, my Lady." A dip of my chin and the bartender was sliding over a passionfruit martini. No, I _wasn't_ going to pull a Catwoman and ask for White Russian sans everything but the cream. That was just tacky.

…I did love cream though.

"So, what brings you here tonight?" Heat licked at my face as Mei twisted in her stool to survey her but I didn't even blink. I'd lost any aversion to fire long ago.

After all, I'd be burned at the stake in my second life. Ahhh, fun times.

You know, studying the witch trials in school was very, very different from living through them. And it was disgusting how easily people turned on you just because you knew things no one else did, tried to create a few things, save some lives. But, nooooooo, it was _evil_ to try and heal some people-

"You do that in the game and you won't have two coins to rub together." Kisame, apparently recovered, drawled over my shoulder as he reach to swipe my drink.

Moving the glass away at the last second, I shot him a pitying look over my shoulder. "Only way you'd ever get the upper hand, I'd reckon."

A blue thumb pointed behind the Shark, gesturing to the other players who had finally arrived. "Put your cards where your mouth is, kitten."

Mei and I exchanged a wicked look. "Wouldn't you," Mei started, slinking between us and winking at her finned bodyguard, "rather she put her mouth elsewhere?"

I cackled loudly, slapping a purple Kisame's arm as I went past and inclined my head to the Dealer.

Iruka grinned wirily back.

Fortunately, my friend was the Best Dealer around _and_ the most exclusive. Very few of the players tonight would even know him (knowing _of_ him was a very different kettle of fish), let alone be aware of the fact that _I_ knew him.

That I'd planted him here, been the one to convince the teacher that a nocturnal activity was good for the blood, was, of course, a _complete_ coincidence. A little help here and there was always a good thing.

I was a good player but, well, I was a pirate. I'd get what she want, regardless.

We all pulled out our chairs, settled ourselves in with drinks for the long haul, and Iruka dealt us in.

oOOOo

It was dawn by the time I was scooping up my final winnings (the pot, of _course_ ) and bidding everyone adieu (did winking at a plastered Kisame count?).

The inky sky was blushing rose pink as I ducked out of a window, clawing my way up to the top of the Casino and assessing the city around me. Golden sunbeams, tentative and frail, kissed the sea of terracotta tiles below her vantage point, turning the white walls cream.

A sea breeze, sharp and salty, blew the hair from my shoulders and raised bumps on my arms.

It was a glorious morning. To be a Pirate _and_ a winner.

But, there was little time to kick back and enjoy the view unfortunately. Mikoto was expecting us all back.

This was partly so that they could catch the morning tide. _Mainly_ so that any angered locals (Hana was most guilty on that front) would be safely left behind by the time most people were stirring.

So, I flung herself from the parapets, free falling then reaching a hand out and catching a lamppost before I could collide with the cobblestones.

A hound bayed behind me and I immediately set off in a sprint. _Crap, I forgot about my 'tail'!_

"Don't make this difficult, Neko," a lazy voice drawled above me and I dived into a side street mere seconds before a huge bulldog bore down on where I'd just been. The beast was ginormous, the size of a van from _Life One_ , and had an angry face filled with _very_ pointy teeth. That were snarling at me in a _most_ unfriendly way.

Bugger.

"Took you this long, Puppy?" I tutted mockingly, not breaking stride as I leapt clear over a fountain and rolled through someone's front garden. "What a poor show of tracking!"

Three more dogs made themselves known as I dashed down the main market street. It was too early for most people so there were no crowds to slow me. None to slow the dogs either, though.

"He just wants a quick chat!" the silver-haired assassin wheedled. His dog mask smiled mockingly.

"Nah, not feeling it-" the port came into view, the ship ready to sail from the looks of things. Ensui's 'head' was _just_ visible beside the hanging anchor and I made a frantic gesture for him to get moving.

Mercy of mercies, the Shadow Master actually moved quickly and _The Matriarch_ started to pull away into the open water.

"Bye, Kakashi!" I ducked a final, lunging hound and then threw myself into the water.

The waves were a shock, icy cold and an overwhelming gravitational force on the heavy money pouches I'd tucked into my inside pockets.

Water pressed down over my head, the bottom of the ship moving further and further away before-

 _Perfect._

A swordfish, eyes glazed over from imouto's possession, darted through the aquamarine waves to skim along my side and, adrenaline pumping from the chase and the need to breath, I was able to lash out a limb and snag the fish's dorsal as it went past.

My unwitting helper glided through the water with enviable ease and speed, dropping off it's passenger directly below the boat.

A humanoid shadow formed directly above me, leaning out of the hull and quirking it's head.

I just knew that, if they were able of facial expressions, my friend would be smirking.

I took the offered 'hand' anyway.

oOOOo

A/N- this was super fun to write, so if anyone has any character requests for the next instalment, let me know!


	10. 10) Soulmate AU 1 - 'Burn'

_The first touch is like a physical brand, a wash of warmth on the skin._

 _Your soul is marked too._

 _(Wherein a touch from your soulmate, random and unanticipated, sets your senses alight. You feel every breath you share, the syncronised beating of your hearts. But...only the one touched realises. And not everybody matches up.)_

It was on a normal day.

Ha! Of _course,_ it was. All extraordinary days start off ordinary...before promptly derailing like a runaway steam engine.

They were at her house, like normal, and Kiharu was cooking, like normal. Unfortunately, it wasn't a tray of delicious goodies, like Shisui had hoped, but a simple curry. But Ki-chan's food was always tasty, even if she didn't enjoy savoury like her sweet creations, so they had tucked in with gusto.

It was only when Shisui leaned over to take her dirty dishes, as per the agreement of fairness, that either of them realised her earring was missing.

"Oh no!" Kiharu wailed, one hand reaching up to blindly feel her bare lobe. Panicked blue met concerned black. "Ensui made them; he'll kill me if he finds out I lost an earring he made, especially something that cut into his naptime!"

The 18-year-old Jounin gulped loudly at the ramifications - Ensui was _terrifying -_ and immediately activated his Sharingan to start scouring the room. Kiharu had jumped to her feet and started carefully spooning through the last of the curry, lest it had fallen in the pan.

"And you're _sure_ you didn't eat it?!"

Shisui rolled his eyes for the millionth time as he crouched to check under the table - no dice. " _Yes,_ Ki-chan, I'm sure."

Scarlet irises swept along the floor before a glint of blue glimmered against the skirting board.

"A-ha!" he reached to pluck it up, Kiharu immediately behind him. "Found the little bugger!"

The aggravating sapphire stud was thoroughly washed and Shisui wondered if Kiharu felt faint, her expression so relieved.

A small hand was held out for the tiny earring but something...stayed Shisui's hand.

"Here," His fingers brushed her fringe behind her ear and gently fastened the bright blue droplet, "let me?"

Kiharu didn't move and Shisui's fingers...lingered.

He'd known Kiharu since they were kids, fallen asleep in her arms as she had in his more times that he could count. But...why did this feel different? More intimate?

Kiharu hadn't moved.

Internally, the smaller brunette was...burning.

Her earlobe was on fire, not a painful burn like touching a hot skillet...but _warm._ Like that gentle, skimming touch had set all her nerves alight.

She...she couldn't _believe_ it-!

"Hey, Ki," Shisui dipped his head to meet her eyes, previously wide and almost unseeing, "still at home?"

Bloodless lips parted and Kiharu forced herself to focus on _anything_ but the warmth of Shisui's arm near hers. "Of course…" she licked her lips and tried to pull some of her usual wittiness from thin air. "Some people actually have stuff to think about-"

Shisui jerked back with a sharp bark of surprised laughter, dark eyes sparkling with mirth. "Ouch!" He took a few steps backwards and Kiharu tried not to feel bereft from the loss. "Kitty has claws, Hitoshi would be proud!"

With a final chortle, when the Baker couldn't bring herself to do anything but roll her eyes, the Jounin disappeared into the hall for his jacket and katana.

In the momentary reprieve, Kiharu decided now was the best time to get her mental breakdown out of the way.

 _Oh, fucking Kami- oh, my god-_

He'd _burned her_!

She never thought it would happen to her, a reincarnated soul from a world without soulmates, and she'd told herself it was fine. Build up your precious bonds and you'll never be alone.

But...then she'd met Shisui.

Oh, she'd _known_ about him long before they actually met. A boy destined to die a tragic death, blinded and cast aside by the very village he was trying to save. She… she couldn't bear it.

Because Shisui was _good,_ kind and innocent and laughing and everything _right_ with the world. 9 to her 7, he'd held out a hand to lead her through the Compound. His eyes had been so careful, carefully hopeful and carefully bright, and his smile was pure sunshine.

She'd beamed and threaded her fingers through his and neither of them had truly let go since.

And it wasn't just that Shisui was bright and funny, despite all the hardships and tragedy and loneliness. He _got_ her, the girl with precious few friends because she was so intense. _Too knowing, creepy eyes,_ they'd said.

" _Like the Naka, big and blue and beautiful!"_ Shisui had laughed.

Her mother had burned Papa when she decked him for being a dick. Not a week later, Seiichi had returned the favour when Aki had reached to pick up a dropped pear and he beat her to it.

Soulmates weren't smooth sailing. The burns didn't mark an occasion, like when you met or fell in love it anything. You could burn for your mortal enemy, a stranger or a love; for anyone whose soul was your match, no matter the body. Your souls resonated, yes, and generally, people ended up together that way, but it wasn't a law. Sometimes you loved someone else or you never met them or it just _didn't work_.

Sometimes it was one-sided and they never burned back-

Kiharu breathed in deeply and focused on her thumping heart. Like an echo, the ghost of a feeling, she could sense Shisui's own pulse. Their hearts kept the same rhythm and she'd never noticed before. Another...another sign…

Steps in the hallway, only audible out of learned consideration, and then dark curls were peeking around the door.

Even at eighteen (still rather short and yet gangly), the smooth plains of Shisui's face, from his sharp jaw and hidden dimple to those gorgeous eyes, were already a sight to behold.

Kiharu breathed and felt how Shisui's lungs expanded in an echo of her own motion. _At least, this way, he'll always be with me_.

Kiharu looked...off, pale but drawn. Focused. Dark eyes carefully scrutinised the lost look tucked behind her mask of thoughtfulness (he knew her too well) but, eventually, decided to leave it. For now. She'd...tell him when she was ready.

"Ready to go? We spent so long looking for your stud, we may as well head out now."

Kiharu exhaled slowly and, in the privacy of her own heart, marvelled at the soothing thump of her soulmate's own.

"Yeah...yeah, let's go."

….

A/N- I was a send button away from only showing this to my Discord chat, lmao...you lucky sods


	11. 11) Soulmate AU 2 - 'Burn'

_The first touch is like a physical brand, a wash of warmth on the skin._

 _Your soul is marked too._

 _(Wherein a touch from your soulmate, random and unanticipated, sets your senses alight. You feel every breath you share, the syncronised beating of your hearts. But...only the one touched realises. And not everybody matches up.)_

 _ **8 years later….**_

When his thigh started burning, Shisui fell out of the tree.

Landing on his ass with an agonised groan was not the most romantic way to react to your soulmark appearing but, all things considered, it could've been a _lot_ worse.

Like. _A lot._

"Oi, you idiot!" the angel laughed, lowering her arm (her hand having poked his leg to wake him from his lap) to cock her hip. "Don't have a bloody fit, it's only me!" Again, she tossed her head back with a roaring laugh. At Shisui's expense.

He was a bit too distracted for the usual, snappy comeback.

Hair flowing in long ringlets, shiny as tempered chocolate and just as silky to the touch. Her skin was pale but darker than his own natural alabaster...gently sun-kissed with a smattering of the faintest freckles. She was small but deliciously curved, her tilted jaw exposing the long line of her throat that ran down til the fold of her yukata.

He'd known this since...well, forever.

She'd been a cute kid, a smiling ray of sunshine as they grew. And it wasn't just her face, her form, that was beautiful. Konoha was a village of lookers, that was a fact. Most people had a pretty _something_ , eyes or smile or whatever.

Kiharu...when Kiharu smiled it was like sunshine from behind a rain cloud. And Shisui had basked in that light since they were small, had never let himself _hope_ -

He knew she was special. He'd just...never let himself _look_ before.

Eyes, like deepest sapphire or the most turbulent of seas, peered down at him and a calloused palm pressed against his cheek. She probably thought he'd rattled his brain from the loopy look on his face. He told himself it was just because his forehead was covered with his hita-

 _Wait._

Her hand, the burn-

The Jounin lunged forwards from his clumsy seat and grabbed her fingers with fumbling hands and he was pulling her down, pulling her close and-

His best friend, his _Soulmate_ , landed in his lap and they pitched over, tumbling back on the tall grass. Shisui just... He was so _happy_ \- and laughter burst, clear and bright, from deep within his chest.

"Shisui!" Kiharu jerked back but he'd already looped tight arms around her waist. She didn't go very far (Shisui would be very happy if neither of them ever had to go very far at _all._ Ever again!), but just enough distance was wrangled so her arms could cross. Stubbornly, he fondly noted. "What the fuck are you doing? Scramble your brain on the way down?" Shisui just kept grinning, no doubt like a dozy idiot. "You'll never get by with just a pretty face-"

"You think I'm pretty?"

Blue blinked rapidly, once, twice.

Shisui was smirking now, leaning in until his nose could boop hers. She'd done that loads to Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji before. He'd always wondered...

Kiharu went slightly cross-eyed, nose crinkling like a bunny and Shisui immediately realised the appeal. Curly lashes blinked hard before she seemingly got back on track. "What are you doing, Shi?"

"Hugging."

A tick formed at her temple. " _Hugging?"_

The Jounin smiled beatifically and squeezed her closer. A few subtle shifts and his soulmate was straddling him. At over 6ft, thanks to a late growth spurt when he turned 21 a few years back, Kiharu's smaller frame of 5ft 3 was the perfect armful-

Wow, now she looked even _less_ pleased!

Shisui decided he should probably get to the point. Preferably _before_ she strangled him.

"Cuddling my soulmate works too, I guess~"

Kiharu clicked her tongue. "Cuddling y-" Her casually aware body suddenly tensed. A smidgen of doubt, self-doubt, invaded Shisui's jubilation. "S- _soulmate?!"_

Lips pressed together, the curly-haired man carefully examined the turbulent emotions in her eyes. She was really...conflicted…

His mouth opened without permission and the floodgates opened. "Yeah, when you touched my leg in the tree and that's why I fell out - I'm usually really cool and composed, especially in trees, like a great Konoha ninja and everything - but - _yeah_ \- and I'm really happy it's you because we're best friend's and your gorgeous - sorry! Sorry! Does that make it weird? That I've had a crush on you since we were really young and I never told you and, oh Kami, I'm making it weird, aren't I?!-"

Warm hands bracketing his cheeks shut him up and he only had a second to realise-

Lips, warm and _soft_ , pressed against his with a desperate kind of hope. So hard he could almost feel her teeth behind, Kiharu licked her way into his mouth and kissed him with a passion that left Shisui gasping.

His hands were at her waist, clutching desperately at the curve of her spine and Kiharu pressed closer. Her chest against his, thighs either side of his own hips and hands woven into his wild curls…

She pulled back with a breathless laugh and Shisui wasn't embarrassed when he chased those lips with a pitiful whimper.

"You burned me when I was sixteen, putting in that lost earring, you _asshole_." Her laughing words, so contrary to all the heartbreak and hesitation it must've brought, sent a lance of pain through his chest. Because even if the timing of a burn meant nothing, not the moment you fell in love or anything, she'd still known far earlier than he had. And she'd _waited_. To make sure he didn't have or want someone else, in case he didn't _want her_ \- as if there was ever a world, a possibility, that he couldn't, _didn't_ love her!

"Make up for lost time, Ki?" He smiled hopefully, still breathless and eyes unmoved from her own cherry mouth. Her teeth flashed white against the flushed skin and Shisui was entranced enough, _absorbed_ enough to notice how bewildered the smaller brunette looked. Happy, yes, but disbelieving that they'd come so far and here they were. Helplessly, he kissed her again, cradling her lips in his and trailing reverent fingers up the ridge of her spine. _Here, you're here with me and I love you_ -

Kiharu leaned back again, with a smug smirk and one fist in his curls with the other gripping his shirt. "I'd rather we didn't, at least not until we get back to your flat...I'm not one for voyeurism, Shi."

This time it was Shisui's turn to blink, once, twice. Kiharu nodded over his shoulder and her bes- _her_ _love_ turned around with a cringing hesitance that bordered on comical.

Five meters away, a massive black panther continued to stalk him.

"Shit!"

…..

A/N- I wrote this part first before Chasingangels and I started talking about when Kiharu felt the burn...and then I decided to be mean and leave everyone in suspense *insert cackling cat gif*


	12. 12) Pirate AU part 3

"Well, well, well...did kitty take a dip?" Hana's amused drawl cut through my coughing sputters, crouched and sopping wet on the deck as I was.

Behind me, I felt the chill of Ensui lingering with some semblance of concern. Considering the fact that emotion was incredibly difficult for a being such as he, I was rather touched.

"I'd be a...poor Pirate if I couldn't take a dip, no?" I shot her a sharp, yet amused, look through the dripping hair around my face. The reference wasn't lost in her, Hana having half drowned trying to swim to the ship before we left (she'd begged to stay, having followed me, and that was that). I'd always wondered if that was one of the main reasons for her contract with The Triplets, so she'd always have allies in the water.

I smirked and her eyes flashed a warning. _Meh...death was an old, and temporary, friend._ There were worse things than being pitched back overboard and trying for _Life_ , er, whatever.

Not that I actually thought Hana would do that. We were best friends, even if we were Exs too, and there wasn't anyone I trusted more.

A towel smacked into my face, thrown like a fucking missile, and Hana swaggered off. _Ouchie._

"Nee-chan," two small feet stepped into my vision - I had moved to sit back on my ass and was currently wringing out my long hair - and immediately started tapping. "Why did you have to _jump?_ " the towel was tugged from my lazy grasp (there was no rush, we were safely out to sea now) and I blinked bemusedly into the turquoises eyes glowering down at me. "Did you not like the plait I gave you? Don't you _appreciate_ me?"

Aw, fuck.

"No, no, Ino," I grimaced awkwardly, glancing over her shoulder for help from Sakura only to see solemn disapproval glaring back at me. _Hell, I was alone_! "I just ducked out of a spot of trouble, nothing to do with the hair or anything else~"

The small blonde stopped tugging my hair _quite_ so harshly. A pause.

"Did you sleep with someone bad again?"

I jolted, tempted to squawk at her cheek but...well, we _were_ Pirates. She'd picked up on our dirty jokes pretty fast. And just because we were a majority-female crew, didn't mean we couldn't be absolutely filthy. I loved it.

Heaving a sigh, I tilted my head so that Ino could brush my long tresses easier. "If you're talking about that Lieutenant, I'll have you know that he'd only ever chase me to drag me _back_ to bed, not for daring to enter it."

Sakura made a sound of disgust, throwing my old towel in the floor to wipe my puddle, and shaking her head at my 'foolishness'. Meh, some people couldn't look past day jobs. I wasn't so strict.

Well. Soldiers were taboo, to be fair.

(You never knew if you'd wake up in cuffs - the less fun way, that is…)

"So?" snapping fingers roused me from my wayward thoughts. My eyes trailed upwards to peer at the sky, so pale it was almost white and completely cloudless. It was gonna be a scorcher. "Who was it?"

I felt for the bag of winnings inside my leather jacket, soaked but undamaged. "A pack."

"Pack?" Sakura echoed, voice sharp as her eyes. I slumped back to lie down in the middle of the deck, having decided that the best way to dry off was by sunbathing.

"Was it...Inu?"

My eyes flickered to meet emerald and, as much as I felt for the poor girl, I mentally congratulated her for her unfailing strength. Both in her gaze and her spine.

"Yes." I propped up on one elbow, casually inspecting the fishtail a silent Ino had just tied off. "An old friend wanted to chat."

"Di-"

"Oi, brats!" Anko howled from the rigging, purple hair flying and face split in a fearsome grin. "Less talking, more scrubbing! Or would you rather I-"

The duo _paled._

"Yes, senpai!"

They scampered off like a monster was nipping at their heels (honestly, the comparison wasn't even wrong), and I lazily set off towards the Crowsnest, scaling the mast and slipping inside was ease. The sun peeked over the mountains of Uzu, now a low smudge behind us, and painted the sky the palest blue.

A cold touch on my wrist let me know that a certain shadow had slipped up behind me.

"How long, hmm?"

A cold breath, a lie considering shadows didn't _breathe_ , against my ear. The response was whispered, lest anyone hear. Even Mikoto.

"Two weeks."

oOOOo

 _The Matriarch_ made excellent headway over the next fortnight, ploughing through the waves with unreal speed.

It was, in all honesty, all thanks to Ensui. As a Shadowmaster, he had no need for the rudder, his shadows pulling and guiding the hull itself in the intended direction. Whilst the crew managed the sails and deck to maximise and manipulate the winds, below the waves a writhing force of shadows pushed us onward.

I was tense, a strange sensation considering how (for lack of a better word) _out of it_ I usually was. Normally...nothing really mattered to me, when the dissociation struck particularly hard. Loved ones were thought of fondly and monsters annoyed me but, the rest? Day to day or anything else?

Apathy was the easiest way to describe it.

Yet...when the fourteenth day dawned, Ensui scaled the mast to see me already awake, dressed and ready to roll.

He said nothing, merely taking my post as I descended for breakfast.

"Ayame, I love you."

The younger brunette huffed a laugh, eying the way I tore into the onigiri with open amusement. "That's the last of the avocado, Kiharu, so maybe you should savour it…"

I blinked at him, then down at my empty plate before rolling my eyes. "Fuck."

A small egg roll was dropped onto the depressingly empty porcelain and Ayame winked. "That's the last of the egg, too."

"Hey, hey, hey!" an elbow was stabbed into my shoulder but, at this point, I didn't even twitch. "Why does Kiharu get the last one?"

Something rubbed along the length of my thigh and I automatically reached down to gently shove the cobra away from my plate. "Maybe because half your food goes to your snakes?"

The witch flicked me a dismissive glance. "They have their own food and eat the rats-"

"Bullshit, _I_ catch more rats than those spoiled slugs, Anko-"

"Er, can we not fig-"

Anko and I both ignored the concerned cook.

"Jealousy suits you, Anko, but it's not your fault that Ayame likes me more...n'ya."

The verbal tick had the older girl snorting. "In your dreams, cat-face~"

My plate was empty and Anko was exhausting. I moved to straddle the bench and get up but something in the corner of my eye had me pause.

One long finger reached to tug on the strap on Ayame's shoulder, exposed where the apron had tugged on his shirt. I let the elastic snap back, careful not to let it sting and knowing that Ayame didn't mind my curiosity. I'd known him for over a decade, had got him the job-

"A sports bra…" I smiled slowly at the brunette's shy gaze, arms pausing from where they gathered up my dishes. "I'm glad, Ayame-kun."

The young boy, the only one in the crew since Ensui didn't count, ducked his head, gathering our dishes into his arms as Anko, the hypocrite, fed the cobra draped around her shoulders. "Akane-sama brought them back when she returned onboard. Your grandmother was kind enough…"

I stood up fully, cracking my back and tugging my long ponytail away from another curious snake. Oh, the hazards of sitting next to the witch.

"Ah, Yuri…" I smiled, knowing how concerned Akane had been about the damage to Ayame's ribs from his make-shift, too-tight bandaging. "Right, back to my post, I guess. Ta!"

I ducked under the nearest beam, taking only one step onto the stairs before launching myself up and round. I landed in my haunches on the deck, just as Mikoto was coming down the steps above.

"Ah, morning, Kiharu!"

"Captain," I dipped my chin with a smile. "How fairs our course?"

"Good," she adjusted her single glove, glancing about the relaxed deck. Black eyes finally met my own and red-painted lips quirked in a sardonic smile. "Almost _too_ well, if I didn't know Ensui. We'll hit the Merchant routes by noon."

Nodding with my arms clasped lazing behind my head, I followed half a step behind my Captain to the helm. Internally… _Ensui, you idiot._ (Cue mental facepalm) _You pushed us too hard, it_ is _suspicious…!_

As Mikoto accepted the cup of tea Sakura trotted over to deliver, I hopped up to crouch on the taffrail. If my balance was any less than it was, the first sway of the ship would've pitched me arse over teakettle into the ocean. As it was, I simply glanced at the dark smudge in the Crowsnest, Ensui still covering my post.

 _Some people are so smart, they loop right back 'round to stupidity again._

"-the silk merchants should be travelling this pat- You zoned out again, didn't you?"

Well. I hadn't, for once, but it was as good an excuse as any.

"Well," I bluffed, eyes shifting meet Mikoto's before my saving grace appeared on the horizon, just over her shoulder. Staring over the blinding water, I could almost feel how my pupils contracted to make out the slightest sign-

"First Mate," Mikoto barked, all business, as she snapped her spyglass open in a sharp movement. "Report!"

"Merchant vessel, as expected, Captain," I _willed_ my eyes to see further...and then, I spotted it.

 _Ensui, I tip my hat to you._

"Captain, they have force-nets!" I scampered further up the helm, stretching until I was leaning precariously over the carved mermaid at the highest point.

"All hands to deck!" Mikoto gave the order, gestured brusquely for Hana to join us. "Kiharu!"

"Aye?"

"Force-nets? Are they-"

The merchant ship tipped and yawed over a huge crest as Ensui sent us rushing towards them. They'd tried turning around to run but we were so swift they'd scarcely turned port-side before we were bearing down on them.

The sun shone down mercilessly, glinting off the magic nets that trailed behind the vessel like lazy balloons. The webbing glimmered like diamond and I couldn't contain my incredulous laugh, leaning back on my haunches and tipping my chin.

"They have Sacred Fish, Mikoto."

Despite the hustle and bustle of the crew, preparing themselves and the ship for a nice little ransacking, I clearly heard the older woman pause.

"...you're sure." It wasn't a question and part of me preened at the faith.

"Yes," I peered over my shoulder. "You should take them straight to Suna, Hime...Hana and I will jump ship on the Isle."

Mikoto the Dragon drew her long Katana, light gleaming along the razor-sharp edge and she nodded shortly. Those fish wouldn't last long, enchanted nets or no, and Suna would be desperate for the precious cargo.

 _He_ knew. _Ensui fucking knew - he knew a ship with such treasure would sail this route and that there was no way Mikoto could pass up selling to Suna. Where,_ coincidentally (ha!), _Hana and I couldn't go-_

 _The Matriarch,_ twice the size of the Kumo merchants, slammed into the smaller boat and almost pitched it over.

The crew clamoured across, leaping from the rigging or sliding down dropped planks, sending the civilian crew into a frenzy. Mikoto, with a freeing cry, hopped over the side to drop smack-bang in the middle of their deck, landing with a thunderous ' _thud'_ and barely flexing her knees.

Amused, Hana and I shared a grin before following her lead. The Quartermaster immediately drew her pistols, aim as true as ever as smoke curled around her forearms with every bullet fired.

As for myself, I abstained from the violence, landing next to the gleaming matrix and smiling at the shadow that slunk out opposite me.

"You cheeky Bastard-" I ignored how Ensui, sardonically, asked how a shadow could have parents, let alone be considered illegitimate, "how did he know?"

Our fingers were already furiously working to pick apart the runes, with Ensui focusing on the seals themselves as I kept a strong grip on the cables. "As useless as he has proven to be blind, Shisui _does_ have a knack for making _others_ talk."

The first bundle (was 'cloud' a better description?) was released and I leaned backwards, skidding along the planks as the Sky Fish tried to swim away before I managed to stop.

"He - _urgh_ \- told you to say that, didn't he?"

Ensui, moving on from the now dull and inactive runes to the second sequence, made a low sound in the back of his throat. Like a strange mixture of a warble and a hiss, it took me a long second to realise he was laughing.

"Oh, piss off!"

"Need a hand?" Sakura giggled, completely unrumpled and, glancing over my shoulder to see the crew completely subdued, I understood why. She was only a cabin girl, not allowed to take part in an attack, but no-one could deny her impressive strength. Drakes were as handy to befriend as they were personable, that's for sure.

"Sure, sure~" I drawled, my casual tone at odds with my tightly corded arms. When the pinkette stepped over, I allowed her to take the second strand from me. "Ready?"

With her delicate fists curled around the strings, she really did look like a sweet girl with some magical balloons. Well. Magical balloons the size of _exercise balls_ that looked like clouds, wrapped in diamond-like webbing and containing countless pearlescent fish. As if to add to the effect, the little apprentice beamed up at me, jewel-toned eyes glittering like real emeralds. "After you!"

My thigh muscles twitched, clenching under the swirling designs of my skin, and then I was airborne, leaping in a straight shot from their deck to ours.

A ripple of earth magic, no doubt cheated through the wooden planks of the deck, and Sakura was quick to follow.

oOOOo

"Right." Mikoto coughed, running onyx eyes over the two of us. Behind her, a thin slip of land was barely visible through the dawn fog, stretching out from the dark smudge of the mainland. "We'll meet up in exactly two weeks."

Her eyes pierced mine. "That's an order."

I gave a lazy blink of acknowledgement as Hana nodded. "Yes, Captain."

Behind her, the crew smiled as they saw us off. Well...Ino was the exception, scowling and deeply unimpressed that we'd be parting ways again.

" _-I don't care if you and Hana were silly enough to get caught-"_

" _Er, Ino, Hana and I have Kill On Sight orders...we_ robbed _the entire city blind."_

It had been worth it. I mean…if Pirates were considered on the list, Hana and I would probably be the richest 'self-made'(Heh) millionaires. It still made us giggle, I'm not gonna lie.

"Off you go then, girls."

In tandem, we bowed and, just before I dropped onto The Triplets waiting heads, I caught Akane's eyes.

I smiled and warmth spread through my chest when she didn't hesitate to blow me a kiss back. _God, but I loved my grandmas_.

The King Otters bayed as we surged towards the shoreline, panting and excited to see their Mistress, no matter how briefly. Crouched on a head, I twisted to watch the ship fade away and wondered if I imagined Ensui's figure lurking near the waterline.

A/N- WARNING WARNING

I accidentally- Okay, my hand slipped and-

Basically...I stumbled on a plotline...and the muse isn't going away.

(fuck)

Any creature ideas or characters you'd like to see? add it in with the comments!

P.S- The thing with the sports bra? Ayame was binding himself with bandages before Akane caught him. Binders, good ones, are also good but, as pirates who spend most of the time at sea and don't have much time for shopping, he doesn't have access to proper shops etc like most people! So Yuri made him a few. Just a bit of context for anyone curious.


	13. 13) Wave AU

**Wave AU**

 _ **Wherein Kiharu is born in Wave, winds up as the little sister of Inari's Step-dad and, as usual, doesn't take shit from anyone**_

 **...**

 ** _DISCLAIMER: NOTHING (EXCEPT KIHARU ;))_**

"You wanna eat tonight right?"

Sakura felt her brows twist in understanding - they were here to buy supplies for Tsunami-san's meal later - when a sharp cry pierced the somber peace of the street.

A young boy went sprinting past, a flying elbow jamming into the Kunoichi's side as a shopkeeper yelled "Thief!" after him and Sakura stumbled a step, snapping around to catch the shopkeeper's eye. The anger and desperation in his gaze had her twisting back around, skittering after Tazuna.

It was then that the rosette noticed the slumped children on the sides of the dusty street, huddled on steps and around corners out of the heat. The sunset cast amber beams on the worn buildings, painting the surrounding forest in golden light and scorching the dry earth.

 _W-what's wrong with these people…?_

"Bridge builder!" the sharp cry interrupted Tazuna's explanation of his bridge and they turned as one to see a young woman further down the street, hand raised in greeting.

Glancing at her charge, Sakura watched the weariness flicker in those wrinkled eyes. _Why is he so on guard?_

"Ah. Kiharu-san, what do you want?"

Turning back, emerald met sapphire and widened in shock.

The girl before them couldn't have been younger than 20 but was only just taller than Sakura herself. Her hair was long and curly, pulled back into a dusty ponytail under a grey scarf that didn't hide the rich chocolate colour. She was deeply tanned, like everyone here, and dressed in a sleeveless tunic and semi-leggings, nipped in a the waist with a darker grey band.

She grinned, arms crossed and expression confident. The movement only highlighted the ugly, scarred welts wrapping around her lower arms.

"I heard you'd been to Konoha, old man." Sakura blinked at the amused lilt when she'd named her village. "Didn't think you had the _balls_ to go through with it though." _Urgh...why is everyone here so crass?_

Tazuna scowled fiercely, calloused fingers reaching up to readjust his straw hat. "Huh, I said I would, didn't I?"

The teen smiled again, smaller but strangely sad. "Ay, you did." Blue eyes turned to peer at the Genin and Sakura had the strangest urge to cross her arms. She didn't, just tilting her jaw. There were too many people here who didn't take her seriously.

"Shinobi-san." The girl, Kiharu, nodded, eyes lingering on the hitai-ate in her pink locks. Sakura was quietly pleased to note she didn't look surprised. "Are you going to Old Shin's stall?"

Tazuna snorted, turning away dismissively. "'Course."

Kiharu-san stepped up beside Sakura, expression easy. "I'll speak to you...later, then."

Tazuna stopped, expression unscrupable, and Sakura wondered what on earth she was missing. Glancing between the two, she couldn't deny the obvious tension. Well, her _client_ was tense, shoulders stiff under the young woman's heavy gaze.

Kiharu looked as friendly as anything but there was something in her eyes, blue shadowed black with the sun behind her, that prickled at Sakura's awareness.

Abruptly, Sakura wondered if this girl worked for Gato. If she was another missing-nin.

"Fine."

With a smile, work apparently done, Kiharu-san turned and melted into the crowd.

It wasn't until dinner, when Sasuke-kun and that idiot Naruto were eating so much they looked physically sick, that the strange girl from earlier was brought up. Or, rather-

"Knock, knock!" A semi-familiar voice called as Sakura heard the front door open. Either side of her, her teammates appeared deaf to the new guest. Kakashi-sensei simply turned the page of his stupid, perverted book and **Inner** growled.

 **Why do we have to do everything?!**

"Kiharu-chan!" Tsunami turned from the sink, drying her hands on a towel and beaming at the open doorway. Even that weird little kid, Inari, looked up, his face more animated than Sakura had seen yet. "What a wonderful surprise!"

The brunette from the market appeared in the door, smirking at Tazuna even as she accepted a hug from his daughter. "Surprise, hm? You didn't tell Tsunami-san I'd be round, Old man?"

At that moment, Naruto-baka and Sasuke-kun both turned to vomit beside their benches and Sakura snapped.

"Don't eat so much if you're just gonna be sick!"

But they didn't even listen! It was like she hadn't even _spoken_!

"Excuse me, _what?"_

Sakura realised she'd snapped her chopstick when the sharp edges starting cutting into her fist. Furious green eyes turned to see Kiharu-san pulling away from their hostess' hug, eyes in shadow.

" _What?"_

"-strong enough-"

"-can't eat more than me-"

Her stupid, _stupid_ boys dove back in for another round, despite the vomit by their feet (honestly?!), and Kiharu-san _moved._

Tanned hands, deeply scarred but deceptively small, slammed into the tabletop with an almighty ' _bang_ ', sending everyone but Tazuna and Kakashi-sensei reeling backwards.

Sakura only just managed to catch herself from falling off the otherside of the bench - Naruto-baka wasn't so lucky - when the older girl started in on her teammates.

"How _dare you?"_ Tanned hands, still planted on the wooden surface, trembled. Judging by the dangerous fire in those sapphire eyes, in wasn't from anything but fury. "The people here are _starving_ , children desperate on the very streets, and you have to audacity to gorge yourself to sickness! For what? Stupidity! _I'm disgusted by your lack of common decency!"_

Her mouth was gaping but Sakura didn't even spare a thought for how ugly she probably looked. Sasuke-kun and Naruto looked just as shell-shocked, although the blonde seemed particularly hard-hit.

"Apologize to Tsunami-san for your disrespect to her generosity!"

Kakashi-sensei's book snapped shut with a deep sigh.

...

 **A/N- honestly? I just remembered when Naruto and Sasuke did this and my rage ghost-wrote this at stupid-o'-clock so...enjoy?**


	14. 14) Kiss It All Better 1

…

 _And she cries,_

 _Kiss it all better,_

 _I'm not ready to go_

 _It's not your fault, love,_

 _You didn't know... you didn't know_

…...

 **Warning: Graphic descriptions of violence, blood, character death and dark themes.**

Like most things in life, it happened without true warning.

Wasn't it _ironic_ , though?

How, out of literally everyone, Kiharu had the least right to be surprised by what was transpiring? How enemy nin raced through the streets, overturning carts and destroying shops and lashing out at the screaming civilians with knives and fists.

But it was.

It was a surprise.

Because, one second she'd been laughing with Mikoto-hime, arms filled with shopping and cheeks flushed under the relentless noonday sun, and, the next, the Uchiha Matriarch was pushing her back with a sharp sweep of her arm, eyes scalding red and barking out orders for the innocents to flee the open streets.

Her feet were lead, heart thudding in her throat, but the nineteen-year-old still found herself scrambling back, lungs heavy and mouth agape.

There was a body in the street, red smearing the pavement below as if it had been thrown a great distance, legs bent wrong and stiff.

Its face was turned away. Maybe it was easier that way.

Because Kiharu could barely breathe, _in and out,_ sensitive nose picking up on the tang of copper and iron and terror and cloying in her throat until she wasn't sure if she was choking on a sob or her heart or the stench of death around her.

Maybe it was easier that way.

The streets were dead now, in more ways than one. A few bodies scarred the pavements, tucked under carts or slumped in doorways. The enemy was quick and ruthless, truly a dagger to the neck and gone the next instant.

Mikoto was long gone now. As if to emphasise that, a huge shock of smoke rumbled skywards, off towards the Hokage Tower.

Kiharu couldn't tell if it was another attack from the Oto/Suna forces or if an Uchiha was making their presence felt. Absently, ears ringing with the force of her pulse as she blindly staggered down alleyways and ducked into gardens, Kiharu wondered if it was anyone she knew.

Most of them were at the Stadium, she reasoned, although the Officers should still have been running the Station as normal. Maybe if she could find Ensui-

Blue eyes widened in realisation, hands rising but she froze, realising that summoning Hitoshi was a _terrible_ idea.

He was...he was with her _dad_. What if they were in the middle of a deadly fight? Or hunting the forces? Or-

She was on her own.

Reality collided with the bludgeoning force of a brick to the skull, Kiharu's hand finding the wall again as the truth of that statement sank into her bones. This was happening. This was happening and-

 _She was alone_.

Her moment of inattention cost her.

 _It was...ironic._

….

When the feathers started falling, Shisui had reacted on instinct.

Sharingan flaring as the comparably pathetic Genjutsu shattered like Kiharu's shells of spun sugar, his fellow Shinobi threw themselves against the forces of Oto and Suna ( _Suna_!) like the meeting of great waves.

The Genin in attendance were easy to find but, by the time he'd rushed over, their sensei's had already sent them off. The stands were chaos. Maybe it was better this way.

He only just managed to catch Ino-chan's eye as she scampered off, blue equal parts determined and terrified.

His mouth set into a hard line, Shisui nodded in encouragement.

' _Nee-chan',_ she mouthed back, easily visible with his Mangekyou whirling. But then, she was ducking after her teammates, platinum hair disappearing into the crush.

The bottom fell out his stomach.

Shisui found himself swallowing once, twice, at the realisation that most of their Shinobi were _here_ but the enemy _wasn't._

 _The civilians_.

Hokage-sama was trapped above them all, the huge chakra shield throbbing malevolent purple. Through the misty walls, Shisui could just about see Genma and Raidou, along with the other guards and a smattering of ANBU, battling side by side with the Sandaime.

He'd be of no use there, not really.

"Kakashi-senpai," Shisui snapped back around, hand finding his tantō as he reflectively ducked under a clumsy kunai swipe and slashed through the Suna nin's chest. _Too easy._ "I'll clear the village."

The older man nodded shortly, book away and hitai-ate pushed up. Shisui had learned a long time ago not to react to his cousin's eye staring out of his captain's face. "The Ino-Shika-Cho Heads should already be there. Go."

Shisui went.

…

She was almost home when she heard the screaming.

Oh god, but this was like every nightmare brought to life; the doors had been locked, if they hadn't been _broken in_ , and the streets hauntingly empty.

Where was everyone? What if she was just dreaming? Wh-

A scream rent the air, howling and twisted and _young_ and the blood drained from Kiharu's face so quickly, she felt faint.

But her feet were moving, arms slow but pumping faster and faster, until she was sprinting. _A child, a child, achildachildachild-_

There were Shinobi when she came around the corner, chest heaving from far more than just exertion, two of them.

A father lay slumped against a lamppost, a screaming child thrashing behind his limp shoulders.

 _They'd killed him, killed him before his own child and_ -

There were ninja coming, Kiharu knew. The Police couldn't have been far away. Maybe if she screamed loud enough, if she risked a summoning, if she ran for help. They'd be stopped within a minute.

Kiharu didn't have a minute, though.

Without conscious thought, her body was moving again.

And, as her arms shoved the little toddler over and down, as something sharp and _hot_ _like a white poker slid through her back and out her stomach_ \- easy, it was so easy for them-

Kiharu didn't regret a thing.

…

His blade dripped red, splattering on the dusty earth and trickling down his wrist, the exact same shade of his active Mangekyou.

"Shisui-kun!" Mikoto-sama called, voice as chipped as ice. Beside her, Akane-sama carefully wound bandages around the thigh of a trembling merchant, his face clammy and sickly pale. "Continue the sweep, they may have fled down side alleys!"

"Hai, Hime!"

His Shunshin was a thoughtless thing, as easy as breathing after a decade of refinement. Even at 21, Shisui was rumoured to be almost as fast as the Yondaime, despite obvious differences in their techniques.

A scream, all the more jarring for its singularity, had the Jounin's head snapping to the right, closer to the residential neighbourhoods.

 _Closer...closer to Ki-chan's house_.

The unwelcome reminder was shaken off with a twitch of his jaw and Shisui reminded himself that Kiharu was probably tucked into the Station or her house, guarded by Hitoshi or her dad or, maybe, _both_ -

The scream abruptly cut off and Shisui grit his teeth, praying it was for any reason but the most likely, leaping over the final rooftop and freefalling to land in the middle of the street.

A young girl hunched over a baby, their father already slumped and bled out beside them.

The little boy, no older than four, was soaked scarlet but, as Shisui tugged his tantō from between the final nin's ribs, he was crying and the relief shook the breath from the Uchiha's lungs.

"Hey buddy," Shisui crooned, swallowing hard at the tears tracing the father's cool face. Fuck, but this never got any easier. Sometimes even the fastest couldn't save everyone, Kiharu had told him so many times when he'd failed to save someone, client or innocent or teammate, but the truth still settled like a stone in his throat. "It's-" _okay,_ he swallowed because it _wasn't_ okay, but, "- You're safe now, I've got you-"

Gently, gently, Shisui's fingers moved to pry the child from his sister's arms, only to freeze at the warmth he felt from her grip.

 _She was still alive, sword spearing through her but-_

"If," a woman's voice croaked, choking and wet as scarlet bubbled past white lips, "if you touch him, I'll ki-kill you."

But those lips were familiar, he'd watched them smile at him and stretch into laughs and frowns and snarls and, suddenly, Shisui was terrified to shift the mess of knotted, _curly_ hair concealing the rest of her face.

But he didn't need to. Because he knew that voice as well as his own and the world turned inside out.

" _K-K-Kiharu_ -"

…..

Reality was a strange thing, wasn't it?

Falling asleep… she dreamed so rarely and, when she did, it was always so realistic Kiharu was left questioning truth and false far into the morning.

Was this a dream too?

" _K-K-Kiharu-"_

There was a blur above her head, dark against the white sky and warmth in her arms. Her _mother_ had always said that sight was the first sense to leave.

Kiharu wondered what else was leaving.

But, the blur above her knew her name, a friend perhaps? Regardless, an ally was the final straw and the fight fled her system, head lolling bonelessly. They'd protected the kid, maybe they could even find his mother and give him a hug-

Kiharu couldn't feel her arms enough to know if she was holding him anymore.

There was wetness on her face and neck, warm and trickling like the softest rainfall. Was she bleeding again? Was the baby crying?

"S-Shh…" she tried, throat thick and rasping. _Don't cry, little one,_ she wanted to whisper, wiping away tears with gentle thumbs and tucking a small head under her chin.

 _Shika...Shika never truly cried as a baby...he just wanted to be held, grounded in human touch…_

Her little sister had been different, hiccuping and clingy with cheeks flushed like apples. She missed those days, when life was so much simpler.

Hot fingers shifted the hair from her face, trembling against her cheeks and half-closed lids and Kiharu struggled against the weight of her lashes, blue finally finding focus on a mess of dark curls above her.

They reminded her of Shisui and her lips somehow curled into a smile.

But she could hear someone crying, choked and _wild_ , like her dad when kaa-san-

"Is," her teeth chattered, tongue struggling to formulate but this was _important_. "Is, is he o-okay-?"

The head above her shifted in an unmistakable nod but Kiharu wasn't finished yet. She had to, she had-

"D-don't let, let him-" _twist. Don't let them take his suffering and Forge a weapon as they did to Shisui. To Itachi and Kakashi and so many._ "P-P-Pleas-"

A noise, barely human, whined breathe her ear and the teenager finally noted that she was off the bloody pavement, head cushioned in the lap of this stranger. Her stomach and arms were soaked, numb and painless and her legs weren't even there.

 _Deja Vu_ swept through her and she couldn't contain the snort that jarred her ribs, vaguely aware of the blood the bubbled over her lips and the shaking thumbs that wiped it away.

 _A woman, a stranger with dusky skin and dark, thick hair, brushed her hair back with trembling fingers. She'd been screaming, crying and sobbing for an ambulance._

" _Oh honey, hold on, it's gonna be okay-"_

As the last words, she'd thought they were lovely. _Honey_. No-one had called her that in years…

Vaguely, Kiharu wondered if that boy holding her would call her honey, too.

It was getting dark already.

Wasn't it funny that this time, she'd not even make it to 20?

"-no, no, no, Kiharu! _Keep your eyes on me, Ki, Akane is coming,_ _ **come on**_ -"

Ki...only Shisui really called her that.

Oh, her dad and Hitoshi and Ino and everyone-

Her throat throbbed, thick and sore. She couldn't see anymore, the world a blur as warmth spilt from her eyes, saltwater trailing from her eyes to her temples and disappearing into her hair.

Oh, but she didn't want _to go._

"I-I'm s-scared," her lips parted, mouth twisting and eyes blind and the boy made a sound like Kiharu had ripped something inside him and torn it out.

 _She didn't want to go._

What if it happened again? How could she try again, when she'd been burned twice? How could she love again when, finally, she'd-

"Shi-" her lungs spasmed, air juttering as her body slowly slipped away. She'd never been so cold.

The blur blocking out the sun shifted closer, crying messily as hands rose to cup her face again. _But it wasn't him...it wasn't him._

"Where's...Shis.."

"-tell me, Ki, w-what-"

"Will you...w-w-will you tell him?"

 _Had it always been so hard to breathe? Isn't it funny that we take it for granted_ …

Her vision went white and the shock of it had her eyes clamping shut- she didn't want to lose this, to feel the world falling away as-as-

Last time, she'd fallen asleep, or maybe it had been unconscious.

But, last time, her family had known how much she's loved them.

"I-I lov-"

" _Kiharu-"_

"Tell, tell him-" there was nothing below her neck. She couldn't feel how the man clutched her closer, still desperately pressing on the curtain he'd ripped from a smashed window and balled up against her middle. The sword was still within her but she didn't feel it. It was the only thing stopping her from bleeding out immediately, holding her torso together whilst the Shinobi waited, frantic, for Akane to return with his crows.

It had only been a few minutes.

It felt like another lifetime.

"-tell him I love him-" she needed it known, for Shisui to know that she'd loved him since that very first day and she'd wanted to _stay_ with him. She'd wanted kids, thinking that, this time, she'd get the time. Get the chance. She needed him to know that he'd been her only love, in both lives. She'd never loved anyone like him. And...she was terrified of moving on.

Because she didn't want to go where he couldn't follow.

She didn't want to build a new life of it wasn't with Shisui.

But she'd been a coward, hesitant and proud and now she lay, bleeding out in the arms of a stranger.

Above her, the man started yelling.

Her mother had always said that hearing was the last sense to go.

 _Shisui_.

And then…

Kiharu died again.

….

A/N- I cried writing this

There's a part two, too

Playlist for this chapter:

a href=" /hS5ak6Zjr_M"Song one/a

a href=" /-2U0Ivkn2Ds"Song two/a

a href=" /iH77LUvAKuA"Song three/a


	15. 15) Kiss It All Better 2

Kiss It All Better...I'm Not Ready To Go

….

 _Where there is light  
A shadow appears  
The cause and effect  
When life interferes  
The same rule applies  
To goodness and grief;  
For in our great sorrow  
We learn what joy means_

 _I don't want to fight  
I don't want to fight it  
But I will learn to fight  
I will learn fight  
_' _Til this pendulum finds equilibrium_

 _Slowly  
Then all at once  
The dark clouds depart  
And the damage is done_

 _So pardon the dust  
While this all settles in  
With a broken heart  
Transformation begins_

\- 'Sorrow' by _Sleeping At Last_

…

 **Warning: Mentions of death, mature themes, blood etc.**

The world was white noise.

There were hands moving his, warm and strong on his shoulders and glowing green as they pressed desperately to the still chest spread out before him.

Kiharu was limp, boneless in a way that he knew was _wrong_. Her eyes were shut and her cheeks lacked their usual flush and her skin had no shine...like a mirror someone had very gently breathed on.

Shisui was a Shinobi.

He knew death.

She was... _pale_ , pale as snow with blue veins trailing along the exposed column of her throat and her lips cracked and ill. Like the colour had been drained right out of her.

Considering the pool of scarlet sticking to his fingers, streaked up his arms and her shoulders and hair and spread around them despite his efforts-

 _It was wrong_.

Kiharu wasn't _pale_ , she was always olive-toned with deeper tan lines crisscrossing her shoulders from when she'd fall asleep by the Naka like she did every single summer. She'd get a strip of brown across her nose and cheekbones in just a few hours in the right weather. He'd always wanted to kiss it.

( _-another missed opportun-)_

Her hair wasn't that dark either, wet and sticky as it trailed through the scarlet pool soaking Shisui's pants, her yukata. It was meant to be like the chocolate she tempered on weekends, the decadent sheets she'd shape into curls for cakes and mousses. Rich and healthy and _warm_.

Kiharu was everything cold right now.

His ears were ringing like his eardrums had popped and he wished they actually had. Maybe if he was deaf he wouldn't hear the frantic discussion of the healers - _late, you're all too late -_ or the soft crying behind him. It was like hearing voices at the end of a tunnel, like waking from the deepest slumber.

Like when he'd dreamed of his own funeral, hearing them lower him into a grave. Only this time, this time, it was Kiharu's.

Like diving under the water, the Naka cool and coiling through his hair and warm hands finding his in the gentle current. It was one of the few times Kiharu's hands didn't feel cold as ice like she'd had them in the cold fridge for a while and their fingers had gently twisted-

He should've told her then. They'd had a million opportunities but...peace made you stupid.

Despite everything, the losses and the risks and the heartbreak, he'd forgotten to seize every day with both hands. To hold onto Kiharu like she could leave any second.

Like today.

Today, her hands had felt like stone.

There were arms pulling on his shoulders, yanking up and away and-

Shisui went willingly, eyes blank and muscles lax. The arm shifted to grip his middle, hoisting him up and back as Kiharu slipped from his lap, her head carefully cradled in the healers' grasps. Some part of his mind recognised that one of them only had a single hand, that it was Akane.

He was vaguely aware that they'd started doing compressions.

He was vaguely aware that the little boy she'd saved was being carted off, bawling even harder with shrieks echoing around the empty street.

He was vaguely aware that his feet were beneath him, the sun shining brightly overhead, and Kiharu was dead.

Medics were rushing her broken - _small, so small, had she always looked so tiny?_ \- body onto a gurney, rushing towards the hospital and Kiharu was dead.

His face contracted in horror, all as if he wasn't even in control of his own body, when Akane's remaining hand spontaneously lit up with white light, the opposite of the usual healing glow. The gurney still moved, the older woman jogging to keep pace.

 _Lightning chakra, wha_ -

He'd seen his ANBU captain's speciality jutsu, seen him tear through enemies with an almost laughable ease.

The Uchiha Elder slammed her sparking palm onto Kiharu's chest, with enough force to bruise her badly, and pushed hard, once, twice.

 _The-they were trying to restart-_

"Shisui- come on, let's go get you cleaned up-" a voice, familiar but so strangled it was unrecognisable, somehow pierced the fog. They were the same height as him, not so much holding him as they were hugging him, twisting the Jounin around until they could clutch him in a desperate embrace.

Oh. It was Ensui.

The sky was rent with cries, high and _keening_ , and, it wasn't until Shisui couldn't breathe, sucking in sharp, heaving lungfuls of air and crushed to his best friend's chest, that he realised it was him.

 _He was screaming._

The arms around him were holding him up and holding him _together_ and Shisui was screaming and Kiharu was dead.

The enemy Shinobi were successfully repressed and Kiharu was dead.

Konoha had won but Kiharu was dead.

….

Seiichi knew something was wrong the instant Hitoshi stopped moving.

They were tracking the last of the Oto nin, having already scouted out Shibi's kid and sent both father and son back to the village for medical aid, the Nara Heir being taken back by his sensei. He hadn't seen Ino-chan yet but there was still time to find his niece-

The panther staggered to a halt, scrambling claws seeking purchase in the twisted bark of the tree branch before he could fall to the undergrowth far below.

"Hitoshi-!" Seiichi managed to catch himself on the next one, eyes sharp and careful as he whipped around to survey their surroundings. _An ambush, maybe-_ "What is-"

The huge predator shuddered once, claws biting desperately into the wood until it audibly creaked in protest. " _She's fading_."

And then, in a rush of smoke, so sudden Seiichi jumped, he was gone.

' _She'? Who?_ Seiichi frowned, fingering a kunai and keeping an ear out for any approaching signatures. It was hard, what with the huge amounts of chakra the two jinchuuriki were throwing around, scarcely a mile away. _Why would he jus-_

 _She's fading._

His heart beat once, twice, before almost stuttering to a halt in his chest. Like a gaping void had opened up and sucked everything inside.

 _She's fading._

The forest rustled around him, stirring in the summer breeze and an ANBU squad danced along the edges of his perceptual.

 _She's fading._

And Seiichi had never run so fast in his life.

He hadn't run like this when he was chased out of Kiri, barely escaping with his life. He hadn't had to run to the hospital for Kiharu's birth, he'd been there from the start and Inoichi had had to half carry him into the birthing chamber.

He'd run like this, legs straining and arms pumping and wind whipping his eyes, when Kyuubi had taken Aki from him, when he'd thought he'd lost everything to the burn of the Demon's chakra.

He'd never run faster than that night until now.

Because he wasn't running for _his_ life.

 _ **She's fading.**_

 _He was running for hers_.

…..

Shisui came to in the hospital.

The ceiling was disgustingly familiar, white and stark and bare as bone and the scent of cleaning bleach stung his nose.

His throat was aching, like that time he'd nearly been strangled, swollen and tender and blazing with pain every time he breathed. His lashes were stiff, crusty from sleep and dried tears as they squinted against the merciless hospital lights.

He was...in a room…

Someone shifted to the side and it took more effort than it should've to twist his neck.

Long, dark hair spilt over bared shoulders, a mask clipped to a slender waist.

"I..tachi?"

His younger cousin didn't so much as soften, dark eyes carefully scrutinizing the older Jounin. "Shisui."

The older boy frowned, brows furrowing in confusion. "Wha-?"

"I've been waiting to take you over."

His head was sluggish, drowsy in the way he knew he'd been given something. Probably meds to keep him down...Kakashi-senpai had passed on more than a few habits and, much to the ire of...everyone, Shisui liked to jump ship on his hospital stays as quickly as possible.

The hospital meant _sickness_ , being helpless. It meant _dyin_ -

 _Scarlet dripped over parted lips, the slightest slither of sapphire visible between curly brown lashes-_

It was like taking a chakra-powered kick to the chest, air forced out of his lungs as he wheezed through the pain.

An iron band on his lungs, squeezing tighter and tighter, forcing the moisture to spill from his eyes. He didn't feel any embarrassment - that Itachi was sat there watching, that, now that his head was clearing, he could sense dozens of others in the hallway waiting for news or treatment or whatever. Because there wasn't any capacity for it.

 _Uchiha's love deeply, Shisui-kun,_ his Uncle Kagami had once told him, the memory cherished and preserved over the years. The only one who'd really loved him as a kid, the closest he'd ever known to a father after his own parents died so early. _They love deeply, feel emotions to such great extents. It's a terrible thing, as much as it is a strength._

He hadn't really understood, as a kid. He'd missed his parents and he'd been devastated when Kagami had eventually passed away, leaving him in the cold guardianship of his Aunt.

Now, now, Shisui knew better.

Because he loved her. Kami, fuck, but he loved her.

She'd been at the forefront of his mind for nearly a decade, the last thought before succumbing to the silent embrace of sleep. The first in the morning, when his brain was still groggy and he was barely coherent. In those quiet moments, when he'd remember something she'd said, or that he'd get to see her, or the way her eyes crinkled when she grinned.

She'd been there in the hard moments. When he was fulfilling his mission quota. It didn't matter if it was an assassination, a theft, a kidnapping...he'd wondered, if he ever had the courage to bare his soul, if she would be disgusted.

When he managed to save someone, right a wrong or return a missing person to their home, divert a conflict...if she would be proud.

Something whined, pitiful and small, in his chest and Shisui hadn't even realised he'd hunched over, fists clenched in his grey undershirt and forehead pressed to his bent knees.

A thin hand rested, light as a bird, on his ankle. "Come on, Shisui."

The 21-year-old gasped, mouth ajar and lips wet, before shaking his head.

Kami, but he couldn't see her.

He didn't think he'd be able to stand if he had to. To see her pale, and still on a gurney. They'd probably washed her hair by now, for the sake of hygiene. Or, was it respect? She'd be in a hospital gown. Kiharu liked blue more and her grandmother had hand sewn the yukata she'd been wearing when-

He cut the memory off abruptly, how her blood has gushed, warm and flooding through his hands. Even as he'd put _pressure of the short blade emerging from her stom-_

He fucking hated his Mangekyou.

Because, every time he closed his eyes, it was right there, recorded in perfect clarity. From the exact stitching along the high collar of her shirt to the chipped red polish on her nails to the number of lashes adorning her tearful, terrified eyes.

She'd been searching for him, blue eyes almost blind in their desperation and he'd told her she was her, what he had her-

" _Will you...w-w-will you tell him?"_

 _Here, I'm right here!_ He'd wanted to scream, a hand on her jaw and a hand holding her stomach together. But his heart was in his throat, obstructing anything but choked fragments of her name over and over…

" _I-I lov-"_

" _Tell, tell him-"_

Fuck, fuck, fuck, but it wasn't _fair._

His breath came short and, suddenly, his cousin's wiry arm was under his, heaving the older man up and out of bed and barely waiting for Shisui to get his exhausted feet under him.

"-you slept 12 hours, the doctors are expected any time soon-"

The corridors were heaving, filled with injured civilians and Shinobi alike and, abruptly, Shisui remembered how angry Ki had been that the hospital wasn't intended for casual civilian usage. No wonder they were overwhelmed...this was beyond any capacity they were used to...

Anger, for her and fucking enlightened by _her,_ flared in his chest. Healers, so short staffed they'd barely been able to leave the hospital as soon as the fighting started, had failed Kiharu. Akane had come, yes, but how long had she had to hesitate to secure the lives of others, to reach them?

Too long. Too long and Kiharu had paid the price for it.

"-miracle it missed her spine and stomach, ruptured her kidney but-"

Something, a spark of understanding, had Shisui supporting himself, shoving away from his cousin only to latch a bruising grip on a deceptively fragile wrist. Itachi didn't complain and, suddenly, Shisui was the one doing the dragging.

" _Where is she_?"

His voice cracked like a whip, drawing looks from around them (that he was blind to), but his cousin wasn't fazed in the slightest.

"53."

 _Intensive care._

That was all the information he needed, all the _confirmation_ he needed, and Shunshin no Shisui was gone.

…..

In a quiet hospital room, a teenage girl had just come out of surgery.

They'd restarted her heart three times, not including when Akane had shocked it to get her to the hospital.

 _She'd left them four times. How many more until it was for good?_

A huge panther sprawled in the corner, tail flicking and emerald eyes fastened on the weakly thrumming pulse point that rested just beneath the curve of her jaw.

She was heavily bandaged, most of them tucked beneath her hospital gown and the bed sheets, but for the bindings on her badly grazed palms. She'd been well treated, however, her hair washed and carefully plaited away from her face and all traces of blood erased. Like they'd never been there.

From one limp hand, an IV drip trailed over the top of the generic sheets, to coil limping from the bag in the stand.

The other was clasped tightly, sickly pale contrasting against the deep tan of a much larger hand.

Seiichi's eyes were closed, lids and the surrounding tissue bruised so deeply it was impossible to tell if he was half recovered from black eyes or if he was just that exhausted. His face was lax in sleep, dark lashes still slightly damp as his fingers pressed his daughters against his cheek with a desperation that belied a restful slumber.

Outside the room, Ensui sipped on cheap coffee that had long since gone cold, his younger cousin fast asleep on one shoulder and Ino bundled under the other. His chin was scratchy with neglected stubble and his hair pulled into a ragged top knot but, he was off work and running on caffeine and anxiety. What with the dead weights either side of him, and the people most important to him scattered throughout the ward, the Nara wasn't going anywhere.

Only one person was awake, chair pulled close to the pile of pillows carefully arranged to support Kiharu's damaged torso. Dressed in nothing but a thin undershirt and blue hospital scrubs, his others ruined, Shisui was barefoot and empty-handed.

He was...scared to touch her.

'Weak' had never been a word used to describe Kiharu. And, even now, he hesitated to use it.

Jaw clenched and brows crumpled against the throb of emotion burning his chest, he finally unlaced his fingers and trailed trembling digits across the cool slope of her cheekbone.

His neck felt weak, like it couldn't support him properly, and the temptation to tuck himself under the comatose girl's chin was almost overwhelming. Kiharu was a protector, in all the ways that truly mattered. She didn't beat people up or commanded soldiers but her will was forged like iron and there was something about the warmth of her embrace that made Shisui feel that, out of everyone, she was the only one truly _strong_.

His mouth twisted again when the unbidden thought drifted through in his mind.

 _It's only when she died that I was able to see why, why I'd always felt so safe with her._ Kiharu had a way of making every issue seem manageable, from forgetting an errand to heavy politics. _She'd_ been safety itself.

It was one thing to give someone your heart. It was another to discover it had been a mutual exchange, that he'd been cradling hers just as tenderly as she his.

 _And she didn't even know._

…

A/N- part two….part three in the works

P.S...y'all passive aggressive AF lol


	16. 16) K-drama cuteness

Inspired by a K-drama scene sent to Discord by Forever_kouhai

c:

…...

"Night, night, Ki-chan~"

The message popped up, Shisui's cheeky grin filling the screen and ending with a rather outrageous wink. Kiharu snorted, rolling her eyes away and pretending her heart hadn't just thumped in her chest, as if the faintest dusting of pink hadn't raced across her cheeks. She carefully avoided Hitoshi's eyes, gaze drolly amused beside her, as she typed out her responding message.

"...are hearts too...much?"

She sent them anyway.

….

In his bedroom, Shisui tapped impatient fingers along the back of his phone, smiling at nothing with muted excitement shivering in every limb. _Had he been too forward calling her Ki-chan? Was she going to reply? Wh-_

 _Ping_!

Suddenly clumsy fingers fumbled with his phone, almost batting it off the bed before he managed to get a grip. His screen lit up with a notification, the pop up app blocking out Kiharu's laughing smile on his screensaver. Her eyes were still visible, just below the clock, and somehow managed to sparkle, like she was internally laughing at her own inside joke, despite how little justice a picture did her.

"Sweet dreams...Shi~ "

 _Had someone just punched him?_

Her soft voice, deliciously husky with tiredness, rolled over his new nickname, red-bitten lips (had he made her bite them? From laughter so she wouldn't wake her folks or?) mouthing the words...his name.

He squealed. Loudly.

Excitement bubbled like hot tea - _or lava or a released bundle of balloons!_ \- in his chest, phone clasped to his chest and legs slapping uselessly against his duvet.

"She called me Shi-! Holyshit,oh my god issheforreal-"

Face pressed into his pillows, uncaring for the grin that stretched his cheeks so hard it hurt, Shisui giggled.

A resounding thump on the wall had him jerking in surprise.

"Dude, it's 4 a-bloody-m!" His flatmate and best friend, Ensui, called through the thin wall of their shitty student flat. "Fangirl over Kiharu at a fucking more reasonable hour-!"

Shisui was glad his face was hidden, despite the fact that he was alone. The blush blazing across his cheeks and scalding his ears was really embarrassing, although not as much as getting called out by his mutual best friend with the girl who owned his heart.

...maybe he could watch it just once more.

It took him three more loops to calm down enough to notice that she'd ended with blowing a kiss.

Well...Shisui didn't sleep that night!

….

 **A/N- low-key died of cuteness, this two get me every fucking time.**


	17. 17) KPOP AU

**KPOP AU**

 _Sharingan_ was one of the most successful KPOP groups of all time. They sold out stadiums within minutes, were in the Top Charts in entire continents of countries and had a fantastic public image.

Six guys, all related (some much closer than others) and bearing similar, striking features. Dark hair, smooth skin and sharp, attractive features.

The youngest was just 16, Sasuke, who was, unfortunately enough, in his edgy hormonal-teen stage. The eldest, Izuna, was their leader at 28, with long glossy hair and a heck of a voice.

They were sleek and cool, their dancing always perfectly timed and their clothes fresh off the runway. Even Obito, who was altogether a massive goof off-stage, managed to pull off a decent poker face for the camera.

There wasn't an issue with publicity, a single thing marring their untouchable image.

Except, there _really, really was._

" _Shisui-"_ Kagami hissed out of the corner of his mouth, squeezing his little brother's arm in warning whilst still trying to smoulder (god, Madara, _why)_ at the flashing paparazzi.

Another dozen cameras snapped, their bulbs chaotically illuminating the walkway where the group were posed, artfully positioned moving up the steps towards the concert hall. Kagami could see the angry impatience in Izuna's eyes - even as his lips twists into a seductive smirk for the fans - and Madara's own gaze weighed like a physical blow on his back.

" _-Shisui-"_

Said guy was currently _supposed_ to be smiling for the camera - only he and Itachi were allowed to have any kind of soft expression for official photographs - except. He. Wasn't.

Further down the walkway, just stepping out of her limousine, a petite brunette beamed at the screaming crowd, tossing her hair as she laughed freely. She was bracketed by her group mates, the two taller stars smirking and winking for the camera. Ensui was dressed in a classic tuxedo (aside from the fact it was made from some kind of scaly black leather), wavy dark hair neatly coiffed into a half-up bun, with diamonds shimmering in his lobes and gold tracing his eyelids.

Hana, the taller girl, wore a daring red number, backless with tiny straps, the fabric perfectly matching her nails, lips and facial tattoos. She was, rumour had it, solely responsible for a nationwide Bisexuality crisis. Or, so Itachi's gossip rags said. She winked at the masses of fans. Someone threw their panties.

" _Shisui."_

His little brother hummed distractedly, eyes unmistakably glued to the smooth, tanned expanse of Kiharu's stomach (exposed between her glittery tube top and matching suit trousers) and Kagami pinched his ribs for the millionth time. Great, he was gonna have to do damage control _again_ when Madara predictably flipped his shit when the headline tomorrow wasn't a nice, smouldering group photo but a gossip piece on his brother's unrestrained thirst for their main rival.

"Smile for the fucking camera and stop gawking before Madara tears into you!"

But he may as well have been talking to a wall for all the notice Shisui payed him and Kagami wondered, for the zillionth time, why he'd let his Uncle talk him into joining a band again. He really should've taken Hashirama up on his internship offer, maybe he'd even be working with Tobira-

 _LIGHTS_ walked past them, waving to the masses as they slowly ascended the steps towards their left and chatting happily to each other. Like the utter _idiot_ he was, Shisui bodily twisted to keep that damn crush of his in his full view until she'd disappeared inside after blowing a final kiss to the fans. The screaming increased. Kagami was pretty sure his brother whimpered.

And it only went downhill from there.

Sensing another tantrum, Kagami grabbed Shisui and hustled them inside, slipping past their antagonistic manager with Itachi on Shisui's other side.

"Why do you have to be so difficult!" Kagami whined, jaw tilted back as soon as they were out of sight of the press. Dammit, older brother he may be but he wasn't a babysitter!

"What?" Shisui blustered, a dark flush creeping up his neck and burning his high cheekbones. " _What!"_

A small smile, barely a curl of his mouth but still genuine, softened their cousin's face, Sasuke half a step behind his own brother but staring stubbornly away with a mullish expression. "You are not subtle, Shisui."

Sasuke, eavesdropping, snorted derisively. "'Subtle'? Try ' _embarrassing'."_

Itachi twisted to frown at their youngest member as Shisui flushed ever darker, shoulders rising around his ears.

"What the hell was that!?" Izuna snarled, Madara at his side and striding to catch up to them. Most of the other requests had already taken their seats, if they weren't still at the bar, and the crowds had also started to fill the upper stands. As it was, this _really_ wasn't a good film for another fight. God knows they were notorious enough for fights without spoiling an actual event with one.

"Lay off, Izzy~" an arm slung around Kagami's shoulders, tucking him under a lanky arm and dragging Shisui along with him. Their leader pinked faintly, from anger or embarrassment, Kagami couldn't quite tell.

"And where the hell were you, Obito?" Their manager snarled, the thick curtain of his hair almost seeming to puff up like an affronted cat. Except that Madara wasn't affronted. He was just plain old enraged.

Plus, cats were cute and Madara really wasn't.

Absently, Kagami wondered if Hashirama still had his CV or if he'd need to resend it.

"Shisui made an idiot of himself but you weren't even bloody there! Where the hell did yo- _is that a hickey?"_

Their main dancer merely grinned, his bruised lips appearing even more flushed against his whitened teeth as he casually tugged his collar up over the incriminating bitemarks littering his neck. Which, Kagami might add, hadn't been there when they'd arrived. Then again, Obito had immediately disappeared as soon as he was free of their ride-

"We need to get seated!" Kagami shoved the older boy down the aisle, still dragging Shisui who, in turn, dragged Itachi. Sasuke, predictably, followed along. Kagami swore he hated them all except his brother and that had nothing to do with his recent angst fest.

Their table was, naturally, right in the centre of the main stars attending, a table just for them and the perfect distance from the stage. Well, Kagami seated himself between Shisui and the more annoyed members, you couldn't have everything. He could see Saru and Danzo two tables away, openly rolling cigarettes as they already counted down when they could go for their next smoke. He didn't indulge like those two but at least his mates new how to hold a good conversation.

 _LIGHTS_ were seated at the table to their left and Shisui was already craning around to try and catch the smallest member's eye.

Well, Kagami wasn't gonna get a word from him there and, considering Izuna on his other side, he was quick to flag down a waiter and order a double drink. At least the service was gonna be good.

The final few stars found their seats, beaming and introducing themselves as they sat down and the crowd settled.

Then, the lights dimmed, the music started, and their sunny blonde host, the infamous Minato Namikaze, was confidently striding on stage to thunderous applause.

Honestly, at this rate Kagami just wanted to survive the night!

OooooO

The night was _fantastic_!

She felt great, the drinks hit the spot just right, and Ensui's snarky humour was especially fierce. Hana and Kiharu _adored_ when their male third was particularly biting, mischievously entertained every single time he unravelled some stuck-up millionaire's quip with as little as a single sentence.

Well, Hana _did_. Up until that older actress, the blonde from the sci-fi film a few months ago, waltzed over and murmured sweet nothings in her ear. They went for a drink...and had yet to come back.

Kiharu shrugged at the thought, knocking back the rest of her drink before clambering up to mingle. The intermission would last for another ten minutes and Hana was the _definition_ of a Wolf. She could handle herself.

Her stilettos sunk into the thick red carpet slightly, diamante silver to contrast against her shimmering navy trouser/tubetop combo. Her curls, loose except where they were pinned back from her temples by two heavy, silver combs, tumbled down to tickle the bare skin of her shoulders and lower back. A quick glance at the compact in her silver clutch confirmed that her red lipstick had survived all those cocktails and she was Ready™.

Ensui was in deep conversation with Mikoto Uchiha, her dark hair coiffed perfectly in a low updo and her creamy skin fairly glowing against the scarlet of her floor-length gown. As she walked past, Kiharu caught the Opera singer's hand, squeezing her fingers and grinning at the woman who first taught her about the music industry. Mikoto winked back.

A table over, dark eyes caught hers, wide and heady beneath unfairly thick lashes and wild curls, his skin flushed. Whether that was from alcohol, the heat of the crowded music hall or embarrassment at being caught, Kiharu couldn't tell.

She swallowed hard, heels suddenly even harder to navigate under that bottomless gaze as she turned towards him.

"Shisui Uchiha, right?" Somehow, miracle of miracles, her voice came out confident and smooth. Everything she wasn't, then.

The guy, a few years older than herself she remembered, stood up to greet her, extending a hand and Kiharu reflexively reached to grasp it firmly.

He was shaking minutely and something in her melted slightly. The main rapper of _Sharingan_ was always cheeky and laughing but now he seemed...bashful?

Was it getting hotter in here or?

"Kiharu Dazai," She smiled, dimpling and tilting her chin so the lights _just_ _happened_ to hit the highlight on her cheekbone.

Shisui's throat visibly bobbed and neither of them moved to let go. "C-Charmed," he croaked.

Shisui wasn't sure if this was heaven or hell.

It was all well and good to follow a group avidly, to buy merch and wear shades and a cap to sneak into concerts, to follow her progress and crow at her successes but...he was _talking to her._

Her skin was a lovely golden tan, luminescent in the soft yellow lights. Controversial in the toxic whitewashing of their industry, Kiharu had never given into the whims and stupid, disgusting insistence of the producers and the unhealthy fans. She was radiant, bright eyed and rosy cheeked and so openly delighted.

But she was still standing there, attentive and _sweet_ and he mentally fumbled for something, anything, to keep her there with him.

"I, um, I don't know if you remember me or-"

Kiharu's smile stretched even more, vibrant red contrasted against white teeth and olive skin. "Konoha, right? We sat next to each other in English class, I think?"

"Your brother was in the basketball team with me, yeah!"

Somehow, Kiharu perked up _even more_. Shisui almost reached for the shades tucked into the inside of his jacket because _damn._

"Yeah! 'Toshi always preferred karate, though, and he's training for the Olympics next year! Dad's coaching him."

Some of the stress fled Shisui's shoulders, muscles slowly relaxing as they chatted so easily. How was it this easy?! Couldn't she _see_ how his heart was thundering in his chest?

"That's amazing," he smiled, vaguely remembering a boy in the year above who'd been a huge, hulking figure. He'd once carried Kiharu on his shoulders for an entire lunchtime, such was the ridiculous height difference between siblings and Just Because. He'd been cool, if dangerously snappy. "But you've done amazing too, Kiharu."

The skin along her cheeks shifted darker and it took a moment too long for Shisui to connect the dots.

The bottom fell out of his stomach as he wondered if all of his beer had just hit, all at once.

 _She'd...she's blushing._

is not available.

Before he lost all composure and did something stupid, like drop in a dead faint, Shisui gestured towards the seat he'd just vacated. He was lucky Madara and Izuna were already gone, across the other side in a deep conversation with some hot shot producers or whatever.

"Would you like a seat? A drink?" God, was he babbling?

Kiharu smiled, tucking her purse under her arm and smirking in a way that did not help his breathing at _all._ Behind him, Itachi smoothly stood up, claiming to see Orochimaru a few tables over and towing moody-Sasuke along with him. Shisui sent up a prayer of thanks, even as he pulled out Kiharu's seat and snorted at the angry line of his littlest cousin's shoulder. Fuck but Sasuke _hated_ Orochimaru's fashion line after a fitting disaster last fall.

Thick, wavy hair slipped over a bare shoulder as Kiharu twisted to smile at him. "I think I'll switch to wine...what are you gonna have?"

 _A heart attack._ "Whisky."

A throaty chuckle and Shisui could only hope that he looked composed as he all but _dropped_ into his chair. Okay so maybe he was a little drunk-

"How sophisticated!" The younger star grinned, propping her chin on her fist and twisting to face the Uchiha. "How did you get into rap, then, Mr. Whisky?"

He'd talked most of the night away with Kiharu, going back to her table when the intermission had ended and taking an absent-Hana's free chair ("-dont worry, she'll probably just watch from the bar-"). He'd met Ensui, who seemed to like him, and he'd grinned at his Aunt, which led to a long conversation on the smallness of the world and how the Uchiha really _were_ everywhere you looked.

Kiharu had never looked bored and she'd paid attention to everything he'd managed to blurt out past the beating of his heart and she'd laughed that laugh and smiled _at him._

If Shisui woke up, he was going to be gutted.

But she was so interesting! Her expressive hand motions as she described a dress her grandmother had designed, talking about her parent's tea farms in the countryside. He laughing eyes and sharp humour and the way she traced a single, silent finger around the rim of her glass when she was listening. Most people would be ashamed or self conscious of not coming from money, as if not being born with a million in your bank account already was some kind of sin.

Kiharu's mother was a casual model, largely unknown, who spent her days managing her parents single, private tea plantation. Her grandmother, actually her godmother, owned a tiny wedding boutique in Seoul. Her dad has been a kickboxer in his youth, before he'd left Korea to volunteer at a wildcats preservation in his twenties. When he met and married her mother, he moved back and had been helping with the farm ever since.

Hitoshi, her older brother by four years, had been scouted for the Olympic team pretty early on. The two Dazai had both been sent, with their parents savings, to their prodigious School, Konoha, where Kiharu had wound up in some of Shisui's classes, having tested in slightly higher.

She'd known Hana almost from birth, had met Ensui on a wild night in college. She'd always been a good singer but it wasn't until they were talent scouted that she started exploring rap.

Shisui's parents were filthy rich, part of the Uchiha business dynasty. His mom worked in TV, his dad on the board of directors at one of the largest newspapers. He'd barely seen them as a kid, wasn't really attached to them. Mikoto, when Sasuke was still a baby, used to take the brothers and himself into work with her sometimes and he'd adored her. But it had been a bit...lonely. Kagami was a few years older but had always been out with friends, sons of their parents business partners like Hiruzen and Shimura, but Shisui was a little too young for them.

He'd had a much better time at school, where he'd bumped into Kiharu in a few classes, and had thrown himself into the extracurricular with furious enthusiasm. He'd always liked music so he'd started playing the guitar, humming some tunes.

Itachi had joined in, once. Madara and Uncle Fugaku had overheard…

Kagami joined so he could watch out for him, that Shisui was perfectly, embarrassed but touched, aware of.

And _Sharingan_ had been formed.

It was at that point that Kiharu had nudged her chair over, their knees pressed together and twisted completely away from the young musicians on stage. Given that the night was supposed to be, amongst other things, a chance to scout fresh talent in rising stars, Shisui reckoned they should've been paying _much_ more attention.

But Kiharu was whispering and her eyes glittered and her hair swung over her far shoulder like a curtain and Shisui could only take so much sensory overload at a time.

The stage had been forgotten.

When the final applause had ended and everyone started moving, the crowds corralled out and most celebrities starting to make their rounds of goodbyes, neither of them moved.

Kiharu had started giggling halfway through his story about the first time he'd tried wasabi (yep, he'd thought it was avocado-) and he'd grinned, embarrassed but pleased, and she'd almost tipped off her chair. He'd steadied her, hand cupping the curve of her shoulder.

He waited a beat too long to let go, marvelling at the smoothness of her gorgeous skin and breathless.

She'd eventually been pulled away by an amused Ensui, Shisui himself seeing Kagami waving him over at the far exit, but not before typing her number into his phone (he returned the favour) and pressing scarlet lips to his cheek.

( _He'd been smiling, so lovely and funny and charming all night, and she couldn't resist pressing careful lips to the little dimple in his smooth cheek. Her mouth left a perfectly crimson rosette on his face but she didn't tell him. It would be funnier when he caught sight of it himself-_ )

He'd almost dropped to his knees right then and there.

His brother was amused, highbrow arched in a face quite unnervingly like his own and Shisui blushed horribly.

"Please don't-"

 _Snap_!

Kagami lowered his phone, grinning impishly. "You know I had to."

He'd woken up the next morning, after throwing himself into his bed and squeezing into his pillow, with red streaked all down his face and bedsheets.

His brain almost shut down when he saw a wake up text from a certain brunette.

It was the lipstick emoji.

OooooO

The next few weeks, Madara still didn't get the front cover group photo he'd wanted. Fuck but he didn't even get a front page issue on Shisui's massively obvious-from-Mars crush on the leader of _LIGHTS_ (although the two _did_ get large amount of smaller articles marvelling over Shisui's blatant admiration, reports of their spending most of the celebration together and fangirls squealing over the cuteness of two rival rappers falling in love).

Nope, front page on every magazine was dedicated to a huge photograph of Obito shoved against a wall outside and kissing the life out of one of the paparazzi.

Shisui would've recognised that distinctive mop of silver hair anywhere and cackled. _Loudly._

Kagami, for his part, was one part amused, one relieved that the heat was off his little brother's for the time being. But, then again, Obito's indiscretion caused things to go tits up anyway.

 _Sharingan_ had problems. Big ones.

It wasn't just that they all fought like a pack of wild cats, that was the hazards of being both related and bloody _Uchiha_. It wasn't just that Sasuke kept lashing out, that Itachi was the only one to show up to every rehearsal, that Izuna had started cracking his voice more and more trying to reach the highest notes. Kagami spent more time trying to stop them from killing each other.

Madara used to be the best manager, sharp and proud but protective and with their best interests. He was only 30.

Before he'd started seeing it all as a competition to the top.

Shisui was in love with a girl from their rival group, so much so that concerns had arisen that he'd jump ship for them in a instant.

Obito had been having _a fucking affair with one of the journalists who had them under scrutiny._ Kakashi that's-not-perfect-enough Hatake was the last person they wanted looking too deep into their secrets and he'd been screwing them right out of a more-than-willing Obito!

Kagami knew he was a hypocrite, he'd certainly told Saru and Danzo and his old university friends some hush-hush details. But telling two business grads about some fighting in the group was a completely different kettle of fish than sleeping with a guy who had zero issues printing _everything_.

He carried around porn, for god's sake. The guy was next-level shameless.

In the days following Obito and Kakashi's relationship being outed, Shisui was barely in their shared apartment block enough to stress.

Kiharu had asked him out for coffee.

...

A/N- I really can't help myself, Huh.


End file.
